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Andre Nies

Publications and source records attributed to Andre Nies.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Logic Blog 2020

This year's blog has focused on the connections of group theory with logic and algorithms. The first post is on automata presentable groups. Then there are several posts related to topological groups, for instance Ivanov and Majcher showing that extreme amenability of closed subgroups of $S_\infty$ is a Borel property. One post due to Harrison-Trainor and Nies reviews notes by Segal on pseudofinite groups, and attempts an effective version. About 25 percent is on computability and randomness, in particular equivalence of reducibilities weaker than Turing on the K-trivials by Greenberg, Nies and Turetsky, and the effective SMB theorem in the quantum setting by Nies and Tomamichel.

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Randomness and initial segment complexity for probability measures

We study algorithmic randomness properties for probability measures on Cantor space. We say that a measure $μ$ on the space of infinite bit sequences is ML absolutely continuous if the non-ML-random bit sequences form a null set with respect to~$μ$. We think of this as a weak randomness notion for measures. We begin with examples, and provide a robustness property related to Solovay tests. Our main work connects our weak randomness notion to the growth of the initial segment complexity for measures~$μ$; the latter is defined as a $μ$-average over the complexity of strings of the same length. We show that a maximal growth implies our weak randomness property, but also that both implications of the Levin-Schnorr theorem fail. We discuss $C$-triviality and $K$-triviality for measures and relate these two notions with each other. Here triviality means that the growth of initial segment complexity is as slow as possible. We show that full Martin-Löf randomness of a measure implies ML absolute continuity; the converse fails because only the latter property is compatible with having atoms. In a final section we consider weak randomness relative to a general ergodic computable measure. We seek appropriate effective versions of the Shannon-McMillan-Breiman theorem and the Brudno theorem where the bit sequences are replaced by measures. We conclude with several open questions.

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Logic Blog 2019

The blog focusses on algorithmic randomness and its connections to quantum information theory, group theory and its connections to logic, and computability analogs of cardinal characteristics.

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Highness properties close to PA-completeness

Suppose we are given a computably enumerable object arise from algorithmic randomness or computable analysis. We are interested in the strength of oracles which can compute an object that approximates this c.e. object. It turns out that, depending on the type of object, the resulting highness property is either close to, or equivalent to being PA-complete. We examine, for example, dominating a c.e. martingale by an oracle-computable martingale, computing compressions functions for two variants of Kolmogorov complexity, and computing subtrees of positive measure of a given $Π^0_1$ tree of positive measure without dead ends. We prove a separation result from PA-completeness for the latter property, called the \emph{continuous covering property}. We also separate the corresponding principles in reverse mathematics.

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The Scott rank of Polish metric spaces

We study the usual notion of Scott rank but in the setting of Polish metric spaces. The signature consists of distance relations: for each rational $q > 0$, there is a relation $R_{<q}(x,y)$ stating that the distance of $x$ and $y $ is less than $q$. We show that compact spaces have Scott rank at most $ω$, and that there are discrete ultrametric spaces of arbitrarily high countable Scott rank.

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Computing from projections of random points: a dense hierarchy of subideals of the $K$-trivial degrees

We study the sets that are computable from both halves of some (Martin-Löf) random sequence, which we call \emph{$1/2$-bases}. We show that the collection of such sets forms an ideal in the Turing degrees that is generated by its c.e.\ elements. It is a proper subideal of the $K$-trivial sets. We characterise $1/2$-bases as the sets computable from both halves of Chaitin's $Ω$, and as the sets that obey the cost function $\mathbf c(x,s) = \sqrt{Ω_s - Ω_x}$. Generalising these results yields a dense hierarchy of subideals in the $K$-trivial degrees: For $k< n$, let $B_{k/n}$ be the collection of sets that are below any $k$ out of $n$ columns of some random sequence. As before, this is an ideal generated by its c.e.\ elements and the random sequence in the definition can always be taken to be $Ω$. Furthermore, the corresponding cost function characterisation reveals that $B_{k/n}$ is independent of the particular representation of the rational $k/n$, and that $B_p$ is properly contained in $B_q$ for rational numbers $p< q$. These results are proved using a generalisation of the Loomis--Whitney inequality, which bounds the measure of an open set in terms of the measures of its projections. The generality allows us to analyse arbitrary families of orthogonal projections. As it turns out, these do not give us new subideals of the $K$-trivial sets, we can calculate from the family which $B_p$ it characterises. We finish by showing that the the union of $B_p$ for $p<1$ is the collection of sets which are robustly computable from a random, a class previously studied by Hirschfeldt, Jockusch, Kuyper, and Schupp.

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Logic Blog 2018

Some notions from algorithmic randomness are extended to measures and to quantum states. There is a lot on group theory and its relation to logic. This includes some new results on oligomorphic groups. There's also metric spaces and Scott rank, and interpretability.

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The complexity of isomorphism between countably based profinite groups

A topological group G is profinite if it is compact and totally disconnected. Equivalently, G is the inverse limit of a surjective system of finite groups carrying the discrete topology. We discuss how to represent a countably based profinite group as a point in a Polish space. Then we study the complexity of isomorphism using the theory of Borel reducibility in descriptive set theory. For topologically finitely generated profinite groups this complexity is the same as the one of identity for reals. In general, it is the same as the complexity of isomorphism for countable graphs.

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Logic Blog 2017

The blog is somewhat shorter than in previous years, It contains new insights in a variety of areas, including computability, quantum algorithmic version of the SMB theorem, descriptions of groups (both discrete and profinite), metric spaces. There are also lots of open questions in computability, randomness, and computable model theory.

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Closure of resource-bounded randomness notions under polynomial time permutations

An infinite bit sequence is called recursively random if no computable strategy betting along the sequence has unbounded capital. It is well-known that the property of recursive randomness is closed under computable permutations. We investigate analogous statements for randomness notions defined by betting strategies that are computable within resource bounds. Suppose that S is a polynomial time computable permutation of the set of strings over the unary alphabet (identified with N). If the inverse of S is not polynomially bounded, it is easy to build a polynomial time random bit sequence Z such that Z o S is not polynomial time random. So one should only consider permutations S satisfying the extra condition that the inverse is polynomially bounded. Now the closure depends on additional assumptions in complexity theory. Our first result shows that if BPP contains a superpolynomial deterministic time class then polynomial time randomness is not preserved by some permutation S such that in fact both S and its inverse are in P. Our second result shows that polynomial space randomness is preserved by polynomial time permutations with polynomially boun\-ded inverse, so if P=PSPACE then polynomial time randomness is preserved.

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Metric Scott analysis

We develop an analogue of the classical Scott analysis for metric structures and infinitary continuous logic. Among our results are the existence of Scott sentences for metric structures and a version of the Lopez-Escobar theorem. We also derive some descriptive set theoretic consequences: most notably, that isomorphism on a class of separable structures is a Borel equivalence relation iff their Scott rank is uniformly bounded below $ω_1$. Finally, we apply our methods to study the Gromov-Hausdorff distance between metric spaces and the Kadets distance between Banach spaces, showing that the set of spaces with distance $0$ to a fixed space is a Borel set.

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Logic Blog 2016

This year's logic blog contains a variety of results, some of them available only here. Highlights include the resolution of the Gamma question by Monin, and a number of entries on topological group theory and its connection to logic. There's also a new proof by Yu of Harrington's 1978 result that a Pi-11 set of hyperdegrees with a perfect subset contains an upper cone. Also there's quite a bit of reverse mathematics, including its connection to randomness, and variants of Hindman's theorem in this setting.

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Calculus of Cost Functions

Cost functions provide a framework for constructions of sets Turing below the halting problem that are close to computable. We carry out a systematic study of cost functions. We relate their algebraic properties to their expressive strength. We show that the class of additive cost functions describes the $K$-trivial sets. We prove a cost function basis theorem, and give a general construction for building computably enumerable sets that are close to being Turing complete. This works dates from 2010 and was submitted in 2013 to the long-delayed volume "The Incomputable" arising from the 2012 Cambridge Turing year.

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Multiple Recurrence and Algorithmic Randomness

This work contributes to the programme of studying effective versions of "almost everywhere" theorems in analysis and ergodic theory via algorithmic randomness. We determine the level of randomness needed for a point in a Cantor space $ \{0,1\}^{\NN}$ with the uniform measure and the usual shift so that effective versions of the multiple recurrence theorem of Furstenberg holds for iterations starting at the point. We consider recurrence into closed sets that possess various degrees of effectiveness: clopen, $\PPI$ with computable measure, and $\PPI$. The notions of Kurtz, Schnorr, and \ML\ randomness, respectively, turn out to be sufficient. We obtain similar results for multiple recurrence with respect to the $k$ commuting shift operators on $\{0,1\}^{\NN^{\normalsize k}}$.

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Describing finite groups by short first-order sentences

We say that a class of finite structures for a finite first-order signature is $r$-compressible if each structure $G$ in the class has a first-order description of size at most $O(r(|G|))$. We show that the class of finite simple groups is $\log$-compressible, and the class of all finite groups is $\log^3$-compressible. As a corollary we obtain that the class of all finite transitive permutation groups is $\log^3$-compressible. The result relies on the classification of finite simple groups, the bi-interpretability of the twisted Ree groups with finite difference fields, the existence of profinite presentations with few relators, and group cohomology. We also indicate why the results are close to optimal.

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Logic Blog 2015f

The 2015 Logic Blog contains a large variety of results connected to logic, some of them unlikely to be submitted to a journal. For the first time there is a group theory part. There are results in higher randomness, and in computable ergodic theory.

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Logic Blog 2014

The 2014 Logic Blog starts with open questions from the May IMS program in Singapore. It contains results on randomness, including answers to some open questions in higher randomness. There are structural results on equivalence relations, and metric spaces. The last 20 pages contain a tutorial [arXiv:1407.4259] by Bienvenu and Shen on the coincidence of K-trivial and low for K, and related results. They formulate the golden run in game theoretic language.

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Denjoy, Demuth, and Density

We consider effective versions of two classical theorems, the Lebesgue density theorem and the Denjoy-Young-Saks theorem. For the first, we show that a Martin-Loef random real $z\in [0,1]$ is Turing incomplete if and only if every effectively closed class $C \subseteq [0,1]$ containing $z$ has positive density at $z$. Under the stronger assumption that $z$ is not LR-hard, we show that $z$ has density-one in every such class. These results have since been applied to solve two open problems on the interaction between the Turing degrees of Martin-Loef random reals and $K$-trivial sets: the non-cupping and covering problems. We say that $f\colon[0,1]\to\mathbb{R}$ satisfies the Denjoy alternative at $z \in [0,1]$ if either the derivative $f'(z)$ exists, or the upper and lower derivatives at $z$ are $+\infty$ and $-\infty$, respectively. The Denjoy-Young-Saks theorem states that every function $f\colon[0,1]\to\mathbb{R}$ satisfies the Denjoy alternative at almost every $z\in[0,1]$. We answer a question posed by Kucera in 2004 by showing that a real $z$ is computably random if and only if every computable function $f$ satisfies the Denjoy alternative at $z$. For Markov computable functions, which are only defined on computable reals, we can formulate the Denjoy alternative using pseudo-derivatives. Call a real $z$ DA-random if every Markov computable function satisfies the Denjoy alternative at $z$. We considerably strengthen a result of Demuth (Comment. Math. Univ. Carolin., 24(3):391--406, 1983) by showing that every Turing incomplete Martin-Loef random real is DA-random. The proof involves the notion of non-porosity, a variant of density, which is the bridge between the two themes of this paper. We finish by showing that DA-randomness is incomparable with Martin-Loef randomness.

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