4,376 research outputs found
Positivity Problems for Low-Order Linear Recurrence Sequences
We consider two decision problems for linear recurrence sequences (LRS) over
the integers, namely the Positivity Problem (are all terms of a given LRS
positive?) and the Ultimate Positivity Problem} (are all but finitely many
terms of a given LRS positive?). We show decidability of both problems for LRS
of order 5 or less, with complexity in the Counting Hierarchy for Positivity,
and in polynomial time for Ultimate Positivity. Moreover, we show by way of
hardness that extending the decidability of either problem to LRS of order 6
would entail major breakthroughs in analytic number theory, more precisely in
the field of Diophantine approximation of transcendental numbers
The Polyhedron-Hitting Problem
We consider polyhedral versions of Kannan and Lipton's Orbit Problem (STOC
'80 and JACM '86)---determining whether a target polyhedron V may be reached
from a starting point x under repeated applications of a linear transformation
A in an ambient vector space Q^m. In the context of program verification, very
similar reachability questions were also considered and left open by Lee and
Yannakakis in (STOC '92). We present what amounts to a complete
characterisation of the decidability landscape for the Polyhedron-Hitting
Problem, expressed as a function of the dimension m of the ambient space,
together with the dimension of the polyhedral target V: more precisely, for
each pair of dimensions, we either establish decidability, or show hardness for
longstanding number-theoretic open problems
On the Skolem Problem for Continuous Linear Dynamical Systems
The Continuous Skolem Problem asks whether a real-valued function satisfying
a linear differential equation has a zero in a given interval of real numbers.
This is a fundamental reachability problem for continuous linear dynamical
systems, such as linear hybrid automata and continuous-time Markov chains.
Decidability of the problem is currently open---indeed decidability is open
even for the sub-problem in which a zero is sought in a bounded interval. In
this paper we show decidability of the bounded problem subject to Schanuel's
Conjecture, a unifying conjecture in transcendental number theory. We
furthermore analyse the unbounded problem in terms of the frequencies of the
differential equation, that is, the imaginary parts of the characteristic
roots. We show that the unbounded problem can be reduced to the bounded problem
if there is at most one rationally linearly independent frequency, or if there
are two rationally linearly independent frequencies and all characteristic
roots are simple. We complete the picture by showing that decidability of the
unbounded problem in the case of two (or more) rationally linearly independent
frequencies would entail a major new effectiveness result in Diophantine
approximation, namely computability of the Diophantine-approximation types of
all real algebraic numbers.Comment: Full version of paper at ICALP'1
Does Consumer Price Rigidity Exist in Barbados?
This paper uses a unique micro data set of price records underlying the Barbados retail price index between 1994 and 2008 to provide a detailed assessment of consumer price rigidity. The major aim is to calculate price durations and the patterns of price-setting across sectors. We also check whether price cuts are as frequent as increases, and whether there is specific downward nominal rigidity. We find that prices in Barbados tend to change relatively frequently, with between 50 and 80 percent of items in every category reporting a price change every month. While there are regular monthly price reductions as well as increases, the reductions are always smaller and fewer than the increases. The paper also reports no measurable impact of changes in the money supply or national inflation on the frequency of price changes
Minimisation of Multiplicity Tree Automata
We consider the problem of minimising the number of states in a multiplicity
tree automaton over the field of rational numbers. We give a minimisation
algorithm that runs in polynomial time assuming unit-cost arithmetic. We also
show that a polynomial bound in the standard Turing model would require a
breakthrough in the complexity of polynomial identity testing by proving that
the latter problem is logspace equivalent to the decision version of
minimisation. The developed techniques also improve the state of the art in
multiplicity word automata: we give an NC algorithm for minimising multiplicity
word automata. Finally, we consider the minimal consistency problem: does there
exist an automaton with states that is consistent with a given finite
sample of weight-labelled words or trees? We show that this decision problem is
complete for the existential theory of the rationals, both for words and for
trees of a fixed alphabet rank.Comment: Paper to be published in Logical Methods in Computer Science. Minor
editing changes from previous versio
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