216 research outputs found
On the boundaries of solvability and unsolvability in tag systems. Theoretical and Experimental Results
Several older and more recent results on the boundaries of solvability and
unsolvability in tag systems are surveyed. Emphasis will be put on the
significance of computer experiments in research on very small tag systems
Minsky machines and algorithmic problems
This is a survey of using Minsky machines to study algorithmic problems in
semigroups, groups and other algebraic systems.Comment: 19 page
On the time complexity of 2-tag systems and small universal Turing machines
We show that 2-tag systems efficiently simulate Turing machines. As a
corollary we find that the small universal Turing machines of Rogozhin, Minsky
and others simulate Turing machines in polynomial time. This is an exponential
improvement on the previously known simulation time overhead and improves a
forty year old result in the area of small universal Turing machines.Comment: Slightly expanded and updated from conference versio
Instruction sequence processing operators
Instruction sequence is a key concept in practice, but it has as yet not come
prominently into the picture in theoretical circles. This paper concerns
instruction sequences, the behaviours produced by them under execution, the
interaction between these behaviours and components of the execution
environment, and two issues relating to computability theory. Positioning
Turing's result regarding the undecidability of the halting problem as a result
about programs rather than machines, and taking instruction sequences as
programs, we analyse the autosolvability requirement that a program of a
certain kind must solve the halting problem for all programs of that kind. We
present novel results concerning this autosolvability requirement. The analysis
is streamlined by using the notion of a functional unit, which is an abstract
state-based model of a machine. In the case where the behaviours exhibited by a
component of an execution environment can be viewed as the behaviours of a
machine in its different states, the behaviours concerned are completely
determined by a functional unit. The above-mentioned analysis involves
functional units whose possible states represent the possible contents of the
tapes of Turing machines with a particular tape alphabet. We also investigate
functional units whose possible states are the natural numbers. This
investigation yields a novel computability result, viz. the existence of a
universal computable functional unit for natural numbers.Comment: 37 pages; missing equations in table 3 added; combined with
arXiv:0911.1851 [cs.PL] and arXiv:0911.5018 [cs.LO]; introduction and
concluding remarks rewritten; remarks and examples added; minor error in
proof of theorem 4 correcte
Hilbert's Tenth Problem in Coq (Extended Version)
We formalise the undecidability of solvability of Diophantine equations, i.e.
polynomial equations over natural numbers, in Coq's constructive type theory.
To do so, we give the first full mechanisation of the
Davis-Putnam-Robinson-Matiyasevich theorem, stating that every recursively
enumerable problem -- in our case by a Minsky machine -- is Diophantine. We
obtain an elegant and comprehensible proof by using a synthetic approach to
computability and by introducing Conway's FRACTRAN language as intermediate
layer. Additionally, we prove the reverse direction and show that every
Diophantine relation is recognisable by -recursive functions and give a
certified compiler from -recursive functions to Minsky machines.Comment: submitted to LMC
(Un)Decidability Results for Word Equations with Length and Regular Expression Constraints
We prove several decidability and undecidability results for the
satisfiability and validity problems for languages that can express solutions
to word equations with length constraints. The atomic formulas over this
language are equality over string terms (word equations), linear inequality
over the length function (length constraints), and membership in regular sets.
These questions are important in logic, program analysis, and formal
verification. Variants of these questions have been studied for many decades by
mathematicians. More recently, practical satisfiability procedures (aka SMT
solvers) for these formulas have become increasingly important in the context
of security analysis for string-manipulating programs such as web applications.
We prove three main theorems. First, we give a new proof of undecidability
for the validity problem for the set of sentences written as a forall-exists
quantifier alternation applied to positive word equations. A corollary of this
undecidability result is that this set is undecidable even with sentences with
at most two occurrences of a string variable. Second, we consider Boolean
combinations of quantifier-free formulas constructed out of word equations and
length constraints. We show that if word equations can be converted to a solved
form, a form relevant in practice, then the satisfiability problem for Boolean
combinations of word equations and length constraints is decidable. Third, we
show that the satisfiability problem for quantifier-free formulas over word
equations in regular solved form, length constraints, and the membership
predicate over regular expressions is also decidable.Comment: Invited Paper at ADDCT Workshop 2013 (co-located with CADE 2013
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