arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Takayuki Kihara.
These open problems were presented in the Problem Sessions held during the Tianyuan Workshop on Definability and Computation, June 22-26, 2026. The problems are organized into sections named after their contributors, in the order of their presentations during the workshop. Notes were taken and compiled by Wei Dai, Xiangxi Hu, Yingying Jiang, Ruiwen Li, Tianhao Wang, Xu Wang, and Jie Zou.
In recent years, there has been rapid development in the foundational study of oracle computability from the perspective of Lawvere-Tierney topologies and their sheaves. In this article, we formulate and analyze the notion of reducibility within the framework of total computability. Then, using sheaf subtoposes derived from oracles in the total computable setting, we establish separations between various hierarchies of logical principles, including the hierarchies of the weak law of excluded middle $\mathbf{WLEM}$, the lessor limited principle of omniscience $\mathbf{LLPO}$, and Markov's principle $\mathbf{MP}$.
Recently, the authors introduced the Gamified Katětov order on filters over $ω$. This was shown to be strictly coarser than the classical Katětov order, and in fact collapses all MAD families to a single equivalence class. In the opposite direction, the present paper shows that the Gamified Katětov order also embeds $\mathcal{P}(ω)/\mathrm{Fin}$, and thus contains an antichain of size continuum. The analysis brings into focus some interesting connections with Ramsey theory. As part of a broader programme investigating the interplay between combinatorial and computable complexity, we then apply our construction to produce a large new family of non-modest degrees in the extended Weihrauch hierarchy, which arise from associated effective subtoposes.
In the 1980s, category theorists introduced the Lawvere-Tierney $(\leq_{\mathrm{LT}})$ order in the Effective Topos, known to effectively embed the Turing degrees. Understanding its structure is a longstanding open problem in the area. In particular, there was an informal sense that the $\leq_{\mathrm{LT}}$-order reflects certain shifts in combinatorial complexity, but a precise characterisation remained elusive for some time. Recent work by the authors has substantially clarified the picture. In arXiv:2602.08138, the authors introduced a game-theoretic (''gamified'') version of the Katětov order on filters over $ω$ -- essentially, this is the usual Katětov order now closed under well-founded iterations of Fubini powers. The first major theorem of the paper was to show that a computable variant of the gamified Katětov order is isomorphic to the original $\leq_{\mathrm{LT}}$-order. This was a surprising discovery, and opens up many challenging questions regarding the interplay between combinatorial and computable complexity, which informed the rest of the paper's investigations. This note gives an informal survey of some of these interactions explored in arXiv:2602.08138, and announces some forthcoming results. The guiding perspective is that different notions of complexity arising in different areas of logic can be seen to be controlled by the same mechanism -- once placed in the right topological framework.
This paper addresses the longstanding problem of determining the structure of the $\leq_{\mathrm{LT}}$-order in the Effective Topos, known to effectively embed the Turing degrees. In a surprising discovery, we show that the $\leq_{\mathrm{LT}}$-order is in fact tightly controlled by the combinatorics of filters on $ω$, raising deep questions about how combinatorial and computable complexity interact, both within this order and beyond it. To make the connection precise, we introduce a game-theoretic (''gamified'') variant of the Katětov order on filters over $ω$, which turns out to exhibit a striking mix of coarseness and subtlety. For one, it is strictly coarser than the classical Rudin-Keisler order and, when viewed dually on ideals, collapses all MAD families to a single equivalence class. On the other hand, the order also supports a rich internal structure, including an infinite strictly ascending chain of ideal classes, which we identify by way of a new separation technique. From the computability-theoretic perspective, we show that a computable (and extended) variant of the gamified Katětov order is isomorphic to the original $\leq_{\mathrm{LT}}$-order. Moreover, our work brings into focus a new degree-spectrum invariant for filters $\mathcal{F}$, $$\mathcal{D}_{\mathrm{T}}(\mathcal{F}):=\{\,[f\colonω\toω] \mid f\leq_{\mathrm{LT}} \mathcal{F} \},$$ which is shown to always determine a proper initial segment of the Turing degrees. Extending this, given any $Δ^1_1$ filter $\mathcal{F}$, we show that $\mathcal{D}_{\mathrm{T}}(\mathcal{F})$ is precisely the class of hyperarithmetic degrees. This significantly generalises previous results obtained by van Oosten \cite{vO14} and Kihara \cite{Kih23}. The proofs draw on ideas from general topology, descriptive set theory, and computability theory.
There is a way of assigning a realizability notion to each degree of incomputability. In our setting, we make use of Weihrauch degrees (degrees of incomputability/discontinuity of partial multi-valued functions) to obtain Lifschitz-like relative realizability predicates. In this note, we present sample examples on how to lift some separation results on Weihrauch degrees to those over intuitionistic Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory ${\bf IZF}$.
In this article, we introduce a notion of reducibility for partial functions on the natural numbers, which we call subTuring reducibility. One important aspect is that the subTuring degrees correspond to the structure of the realizability subtoposes of the effective topos. We show that the subTuring degrees (that is, the realizability subtoposes of the effective topos) form a dense non-modular (thus, non-distributive) lattice. We also show that there is a nonzero join-irreducible subTuring degree (which implies that there is a realizability subtopos of the effective topos that cannot be decomposed into two smaller realizability subtoposes).
In this article, we investigate the arithmetical hierarchy from the perspective of realizability theory. An experimental observation in classical computability theory is that the notion of degrees of unsolvability for natural arithmetical decision problems only plays a role in counting the number of quantifiers, jumps, or mind-changes. In contrast, we reveal that when the realizability interpretation is combined with many-one reducibility, it becomes possible to classify natural arithmetical problems in a very nontrivial way.
In this paper, we prove measurability of event for which a general continuous-time stochastic process satisfies continuous-time Metric Temporal Logic (MTL) formula. Continuous-time MTL can define temporal constrains for physical system in natural way. Then there are several researches that deal with probability of continuous MTL semantics for stochastic processes. However, proving measurability for such events is by no means an obvious task, even though it is essential. The difficulty comes from the semantics of "until operator", which is defined by logical sum of uncountably many propositions. Given the difficulty involved in proving the measurability of such an event using classical measure-theoretic methods, we employ a theorem from stochastic analysis. This theorem is utilized to prove the measurability of hitting times for stochastic processes, and it stands as a profound result within the theory of capacity. Next, we provide an example that illustrates the failure of probability approximation when discretizing the continuous semantics of MTL formulas with respect to time. Additionally, we prove that the probability of the discretized semantics converges to that of the continuous semantics when we impose restrictions on diamond operators to prevent nesting.
In this article, we propose a new classification of $Σ^0_2$ formulas under the realizability interpretation of many-one reducibility (i.e., Levin reducibility). For example, ${\sf Fin}$, the decision of being eventually zero for sequences, is many-one/Levin complete among $Σ^0_2$ formulas of the form $\exists n\forall m\geq n.φ(m,x)$, where $φ$ is decidable. The decision of boundedness for sequences ${\sf BddSeq}$ and for width of posets ${\sf FinWidth}$ are many-one/Levin complete among $Σ^0_2$ formulas of the form $\exists n\forall m\geq n\forall k.φ(m,k,x)$, where $φ$ is decidable. However, unlike the classical many-one reducibility, none of the above is $Σ^0_2$-complete. The decision of non-density of linear order ${\sf NonDense}$ is truly $Σ^0_2$-complete.
We present three different perspectives of oracle. First, an oracle is a blackbox; second, an oracle is a tool to change the way we access mathematical objects; and third, an oracle is a factor that causes a change in truth values. Formally, the second perspective advocates that an oracle is an endofunctor on the category of coded sets (preserving underlying sets) -- we associate it with a universal closure operator. The third perspective advocates that an oracle is an operation on the object of truth values -- we associate it with a Lawvere-Tierney topology. These three perspectives create a link between the three fields, computability theory, synthetic descriptive set theory, and effective topos theory.
A Polish space is not always homeomorphic to a computably presented Polish space. In this article, we examine degrees of non-computability of presenting homeomorphic copies of compact Polish spaces. We show that there exists a $0'$-computable low$_3$ compact Polish space which is not homeomorphic to a computable one, and that, for any natural number $n\geq 2$, there exists a Polish space $X_n$ such that exactly the high$_{n}$-degrees are required to present the homeomorphism type of $X_n$. We also show that no compact Polish space has a least presentation with respect to Turing reducibility. The first version of this article appeared in April 2020. A major update was made in September 2023, with improved proofs and results. This is the final version from January 2024, with more results on Čech homology groups.
The well known ideal presentations of countably based domains were recently extended to (effective) quasi-Polish spaces. Continuing these investigations, we explore some classes of effective quasi-Polish spaces. In particular, we prove an effective version of the domain-characterization of quasi-Polish spaces, describe effective extensions of quasi-Polish topologies, discover natural numberings of classes of effective quasi-Polish spaces, estimate the complexity of the (effective) homeomorphism relation and of some classes of spaces w.r.t. these numberings, and investigate degree spectra of continuous domains.
Kechris and Martin showed that the Wadge rank of the $ω$-th level of the decreasing difference hierarchy of coanalytic sets is $ω_2$ under the axiom of determinacy. In this article, we give an alternative proof of the Kechris-Martin theorem, by understanding the $ω$-th level of the decreasing difference hierarchy of coanalytic sets as the (relative) hyperarithmetical processes with finite mind-changes. Based on this viewpiont, we also examine the gap between the increasing and decreasing difference hierarchies of coanalytic sets by relating them to the $Π^1_1$- and $Σ^1_1$-least number principles, respectively. We also analyze Weihrauch degrees of related principles.
In this article, we introduce certain kinds of computable reduction games with imperfect information. One can view such a game as an extension of the notion of Turing reduction, and generalized Weihrauch reduction as well. Based on the work by Lee and van Oosten, we utilize these games for providing a concrete description of the lattice of the Lawvere-Tierney topologies on the effective topos (equivalently, the subtoposes of the effective topos preordered by geometric inclusion). As an application, for instance, we show that there exists no minimal Lawvere-Tierney topology which is strictly above the identity topology on the effective topos.
Louveau showed that if a Borel set in a Polish space happens to be in a Borel Wadge class $Γ$, then its $Γ$-code can be obtained from its Borel code in a hyperarithmetical manner. We extend Louveau's theorem to Borel functions: If a Borel function on a Polish space happens to be a $Σ_t$-function, then one can effectively find its $Σ_t$-code hyperarithmetically relative to its Borel code. More generally, we prove extension-type, domination-type, and decomposition-type variants of Louveau's theorem for Borel functions.
The enumeration degrees of sets of natural numbers can be identified with the degrees of difficulty of enumerating neighborhood bases of points in a universal second-countable $T_0$-space (e.g. the $ω$-power of the Sierpiński space). Hence, every represented second-countable $T_0$-space determines a collection of enumeration degrees. For instance, Cantor space captures the total degrees, and the Hilbert cube captures the continuous degrees by definition. Based on these observations, we utilize general topology (particularly non-metrizable topology) to establish a classification theory of enumeration degrees of sets of natural numbers.
In his book, John Stillwell wrote "finding the exact strength of the Brouwer invariance theorems seems to me one of the most interesting open problems in reverse mathematics." In this article, we solve Stillwell's problem by showing that (some forms of) the Brouwer invariance theorems are equivalent to weak König's lemma over the base system ${\sf RCA}_0$. In particular, there exists an explicit algorithm which, whenever weak König's lemma is false, constructs a topological embedding of $\mathbb{R}^4$ into $\mathbb{R}^3$.