Random strings and tt-degrees of Turing complete C.E. sets

We investigate the truth-table degrees of (co-)c.e.\ sets, in particular, sets of random strings. It is known that the set of random strings with respect to any universal prefix-free machine is Turing complete, but that truth-table completeness depends on the choice of universal machine. We show that for such sets of random strings, any finite set of their truth-table degrees do not meet to the degree~0, even within the c.e. truth-table degrees, but when taking the meet over all such truth-table degrees, the infinite meet is indeed~0. The latter result proves a conjecture of Allender, Friedman and Gasarch. We also show that there are two Turing complete c.e. sets whose truth-table degrees form a minimal pair.Comment: 25 page

Almost isomorphism for countable state Markov shifts

Countable state Markov shifts are a natural generalization of the well-known subshifts of finite type. They are the subject of current research both for their own sake and as models for smooth dynamical systems. In this paper, we investigate their almost isomorphism and entropy conjugacy and obtain a complete classification for the especially important class of strongly positive recurrent Markov shifts. This gives a complete classification up to entropy conjugacy of the natural extensions of smooth entropy expanding maps, including all smooth interval maps with non-zero topological entropy