Generalizations of the Recursion Theorem

We consider two generalizations of the recursion theorem, namely Visser's ADN theorem and Arslanov's completeness criterion, and we prove a joint generalization of these theorems

Predicativity and parametric polymorphism of Brouwerian implication

A common objection to the definition of intuitionistic implication in the Proof Interpretation is that it is impredicative. I discuss the history of that objection, argue that in Brouwer's writings predicativity of implication is ensured through parametric polymorphism of functions on species, and compare this construal with the alternative approaches to predicative implication of Goodman, Dummett, Prawitz, and Martin-L\"of.Comment: Added further references (Pistone, Poincar\'e, Tabatabai, Van Atten

Hilbert's Program Then and Now

Hilbert's program was an ambitious and wide-ranging project in the philosophy and foundations of mathematics. In order to "dispose of the foundational questions in mathematics once and for all, "Hilbert proposed a two-pronged approach in 1921: first, classical mathematics should be formalized in axiomatic systems; second, using only restricted, "finitary" means, one should give proofs of the consistency of these axiomatic systems. Although Godel's incompleteness theorems show that the program as originally conceived cannot be carried out, it had many partial successes, and generated important advances in logical theory and meta-theory, both at the time and since. The article discusses the historical background and development of Hilbert's program, its philosophical underpinnings and consequences, and its subsequent development and influences since the 1930s.Comment: 43 page

The Modal Logics of Kripke-Feferman Truth

We determine the modal logic of fixed-point models of truth and their axiomatizations by Solomon Feferman via Solovay-style completeness results

Anticoncentration theorems for schemes showing a quantum speedup

One of the main milestones in quantum information science is to realise quantum devices that exhibit an exponential computational advantage over classical ones without being universal quantum computers, a state of affairs dubbed quantum speedup, or sometimes "quantum computational supremacy". The known schemes heavily rely on mathematical assumptions that are plausible but unproven, prominently results on anticoncentration of random prescriptions. In this work, we aim at closing the gap by proving two anticoncentration theorems and accompanying hardness results, one for circuit-based schemes, the other for quantum quench-type schemes for quantum simulations. Compared to the few other known such results, these results give rise to a number of comparably simple, physically meaningful and resource-economical schemes showing a quantum speedup in one and two spatial dimensions. At the heart of the analysis are tools of unitary designs and random circuits that allow us to conclude that universal random circuits anticoncentrate as well as an embedding of known circuit-based schemes in a 2D translation-invariant architecture.Comment: 12+2 pages, added applications sectio

Random walks in Euclidean space

Consider a sequence of independent random isometries of Euclidean space with a previously fixed probability law. Apply these isometries successively to the origin and consider the sequence of random points that we obtain this way. We prove a local limit theorem under a suitable moment condition and a necessary non-degeneracy condition. Under stronger hypothesis, we prove a limit theorem on a wide range of scales: between e^(-cl^(1/4)) and l^(1/2), where l is the number of steps.Comment: 62 pages, 1 figure, revision based on referee's report, proofs and results unchange

The Modal Logics of Kripke-Feferman Truth

We determine the modal logic of fixed-point models of truth and their axiomatizations by Solomon Feferman via Solovay-style completeness results. Given a fixed-point model $\mathcal{M}$, or an axiomatization $S$ thereof, we find a modal logic $M$ such that a modal sentence $\varphi$ is a theorem of $M$ if and only if the sentence $\varphi^*$ obtained by translating the modal operator with the truth predicate is true in $\mathcal{M}$ or a theorem of $S$ under all such translations. To this end, we introduce a novel version of possible worlds semantics featuring both classical and nonclassical worlds and establish the completeness of a family of non-congruent modal logics whose internal logic is subclassical with respect to this semantics