This paper examines the constructive Hausdorff and packing dimensions of
Turing degrees. The main result is that every infinite sequence S with
constructive Hausdorff dimension dim_H(S) and constructive packing dimension
dim_P(S) is Turing equivalent to a sequence R with dim_H(R) <= (dim_H(S) /
dim_P(S)) - epsilon, for arbitrary epsilon > 0. Furthermore, if dim_P(S) > 0,
then dim_P(R) >= 1 - epsilon. The reduction thus serves as a *randomness
extractor* that increases the algorithmic randomness of S, as measured by
constructive dimension.
A number of applications of this result shed new light on the constructive
dimensions of Turing degrees. A lower bound of dim_H(S) / dim_P(S) is shown to
hold for the Turing degree of any sequence S. A new proof is given of a
previously-known zero-one law for the constructive packing dimension of Turing
degrees. It is also shown that, for any regular sequence S (that is, dim_H(S) =
dim_P(S)) such that dim_H(S) > 0, the Turing degree of S has constructive
Hausdorff and packing dimension equal to 1.
Finally, it is shown that no single Turing reduction can be a universal
constructive Hausdorff dimension extractor, and that bounded Turing reductions
cannot extract constructive Hausdorff dimension. We also exhibit sequences on
which weak truth-table and bounded Turing reductions differ in their ability to
extract dimension.Comment: The version of this paper appearing in Theory of Computing Systems,
45(4):740-755, 2009, had an error in the proof of Theorem 2.4, due to
insufficient care with the choice of delta. This version modifies that proof
to fix the error