Classes of structures with no intermediate isomorphism problems

We say that a theory $T$ is intermediate under effective reducibility if the isomorphism problems among its computable models is neither hyperarithmetic nor on top under effective reducibility. We prove that if an infinitary sentence $T$ is uniformly effectively dense, a property we define in the paper, then no extension of it is intermediate, at least when relativized to every oracle on a cone. As an application we show that no infinitary sentence whose models are all linear orderings is intermediate under effective reducibility relative to every oracle on a cone

A computability theoretic equivalent to Vaught's conjecture

We prove that, for every theory $T$ which is given by an ${\mathcal L}_{\omega_1,\omega}$ sentence, $T$ has less than $2^{\aleph_0}$ many countable models if and only if we have that, for every $X\in 2^\omega$ on a cone of Turing degrees, every $X$-hyperarithmetic model of $T$ has an $X$-computable copy. We also find a concrete description, relative to some oracle, of the Turing-degree spectra of all the models of a counterexample to Vaught's conjecture

The Cardinality of an Oracle in Blum-Shub-Smale Computation

We examine the relation of BSS-reducibility on subsets of the real numbers. The question was asked recently (and anonymously) whether it is possible for the halting problem H in BSS-computation to be BSS-reducible to a countable set. Intuitively, it seems that a countable set ought not to contain enough information to decide membership in a reasonably complex (uncountable) set such as H. We confirm this intuition, and prove a more general theorem linking the cardinality of the oracle set to the cardinality, in a local sense, of the set which it computes. We also mention other recent results on BSS-computation and algebraic real numbers

Quantum Copy-Protection and Quantum Money

Forty years ago, Wiesner proposed using quantum states to create money that is physically impossible to counterfeit, something that cannot be done in the classical world. However, Wiesner's scheme required a central bank to verify the money, and the question of whether there can be unclonable quantum money that anyone can verify has remained open since. One can also ask a related question, which seems to be new: can quantum states be used as copy-protected programs, which let the user evaluate some function f, but not create more programs for f? This paper tackles both questions using the arsenal of modern computational complexity. Our main result is that there exist quantum oracles relative to which publicly-verifiable quantum money is possible, and any family of functions that cannot be efficiently learned from its input-output behavior can be quantumly copy-protected. This provides the first formal evidence that these tasks are achievable. The technical core of our result is a "Complexity-Theoretic No-Cloning Theorem," which generalizes both the standard No-Cloning Theorem and the optimality of Grover search, and might be of independent interest. Our security argument also requires explicit constructions of quantum t-designs. Moving beyond the oracle world, we also present an explicit candidate scheme for publicly-verifiable quantum money, based on random stabilizer states; as well as two explicit schemes for copy-protecting the family of point functions. We do not know how to base the security of these schemes on any existing cryptographic assumption. (Note that without an oracle, we can only hope for security under some computational assumption.)Comment: 14-page conference abstract; full version hasn't appeared and will never appear. Being posted to arXiv mostly for archaeological purposes. Explicit money scheme has since been broken by Lutomirski et al (arXiv:0912.3825). Other quantum money material has been superseded by results of Aaronson and Christiano (coming soon). Quantum copy-protection ideas will hopefully be developed in separate wor