2,436 research outputs found
Strings from Logic
What are strings made of? The possibility is discussed that strings are
purely mathematical objects, made of logical axioms. More precisely, proofs in
simple logical calculi are represented by graphs that can be interpreted as the
Feynman diagrams of certain large-N field theories. Each vertex represents an
axiom. Strings arise, because these large-N theories are dual to string
theories. These ``logical quantum field theories'' map theorems into the space
of functions of two parameters: N and the coupling constant. Undecidable
theorems might be related to nonperturbative field theory effects.Comment: Talk, 19 pp, 7 figure
Some new results on decidability for elementary algebra and geometry
We carry out a systematic study of decidability for theories of (a) real
vector spaces, inner product spaces, and Hilbert spaces and (b) normed spaces,
Banach spaces and metric spaces, all formalised using a 2-sorted first-order
language. The theories for list (a) turn out to be decidable while the theories
for list (b) are not even arithmetical: the theory of 2-dimensional Banach
spaces, for example, has the same many-one degree as the set of truths of
second-order arithmetic.
We find that the purely universal and purely existential fragments of the
theory of normed spaces are decidable, as is the AE fragment of the theory of
metric spaces. These results are sharp of their type: reductions of Hilbert's
10th problem show that the EA fragments for metric and normed spaces and the AE
fragment for normed spaces are all undecidable.Comment: 79 pages, 9 figures. v2: Numerous minor improvements; neater proofs
of Theorems 8 and 29; v3: fixed subscripts in proof of Lemma 3
Solvable (and unsolvable) cases of the decision problem for fragments of analysis
We survey two series of results concerning the decidability
of fragments of Tarksiâs elementary algebra extended with one-argument
functions which meet significant properties such as continuity, differentiability, or analyticity. One series of results regards the initial levels of
a hierarchy of prenex sentences involving a single function symbol: in
a number of cases, the decision problem for these sentences was solved
in the positive by H. Friedman and A. Seress, who also proved that
beyond two quantifier alternations decidability gets lost. The second
series of results refers to merely existential sentences, but it brings into
play an arbitrary number of functions, which are requested to be, over
specified closed intervals, monotone increasing or decreasing, concave,
or convex; any two such functions can be compared, and in one case,
where each function is supposed to own continuous first derivative, their
derivatives can be compared with real constants
Are there new models of computation? Reply to Wegner and Eberbach
Wegner and Eberbach[Weg04b] have argued that there are fundamental limitations
to Turing Machines as a foundation of computability and that these can be overcome
by so-called superTuring models such as interaction machines, the [pi]calculus and the
$-calculus. In this paper we contest Weger and Eberbach claims
Programmability of Chemical Reaction Networks
Motivated by the intriguing complexity of biochemical circuitry within individual cells we study Stochastic Chemical Reaction Networks (SCRNs), a formal model that considers a set of chemical reactions acting on a finite number of molecules in a well-stirred solution according to standard chemical kinetics equations. SCRNs have been widely used for describing naturally occurring (bio)chemical systems, and with the advent of synthetic biology they become a promising language for the design of artificial biochemical circuits. Our interest here is the computational power of SCRNs and how they relate to more conventional models of computation. We survey known connections and give new connections between SCRNs and Boolean Logic Circuits, Vector Addition Systems, Petri Nets, Gate Implementability, Primitive Recursive Functions, Register Machines, Fractran, and Turing Machines. A theme to these investigations is the thin line between decidable and undecidable questions about SCRN behavior
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