A Mathematical Primer on Computability

Author: Amilcar Sernadas
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781848902961
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 280

Book Description
The book provides a self-contained introduction to computability theory for advanced undergraduate or early graduate students of mathematics and computer science. The technical material is illustrated with plenty of examples, problems with fully worked solutions as well as a range of proposed exercises. Part I is centered around fundamental computability notions and results, starting with the pillar concepts of computational model (an abstract high-level programming language), computable function, decidable and listable set, proper universal function, decision problem and the reduction technique for transferring decidability and listability properties. The essential results namely Rice's Theorem, Rice-Shapiro's Theorem, Rice-Shapiro-McNaughton-Myhill's Theorem as well as Rogers' Theorem and the Recursion Theorem are presented and illustrated. Many-to-one reducibility and many-to-one degrees are investigated. A short introduction to computation with oracles is also included. Computable as well as non-computable operators are introduced as well as monotonic and finitary operators. The relationship between them is discussed, in particular via Myhill-Shepherdson's Theorem. Kleene's Least Fixed Point Theorem is also presented. Finally, Part I terminates with a briefi ng on the Turing computational model, Turing reducibility and Turing degrees. Part II of the book concentrates on applications of computability in several areas namely in logic (undecidability of arithmetic, satisfiability in propositional logic, decidability in modal logic), Euclidean geometry, graphs and Kolmogorov complexity. Nevertheless no previous knowledge of these subjects is required. The essential details for understanding the applications are provided.

Computability

Author: Douglas S. Bridges
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461208637
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 186

Book Description
Aimed at mathematicians and computer scientists who will only be exposed to one course in this area, Computability: A Mathematical Sketchbook provides a brief but rigorous introduction to the abstract theory of computation, sometimes also referred to as recursion theory. It develops major themes in computability theory, such as Rice's theorem and the recursion theorem, and provides a systematic account of Blum's complexity theory as well as an introduction to the theory of computable real numbers and functions. The book is intended as a university text, but it may also be used for self-study; appropriate exercises and solutions are included.

Higher-Order Computability

Author: John Longley
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3662479923
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 587

Book Description
This book offers a self-contained exposition of the theory of computability in a higher-order context, where 'computable operations' may themselves be passed as arguments to other computable operations. The subject originated in the 1950s with the work of Kleene, Kreisel and others, and has since expanded in many different directions under the influence of workers from both mathematical logic and computer science. The ideas of higher-order computability have proved valuable both for elucidating the constructive content of logical systems, and for investigating the expressive power of various higher-order programming languages. In contrast to the well-known situation for first-order functions, it turns out that at higher types there are several different notions of computability competing for our attention, and each of these has given rise to its own strand of research. In this book, the authors offer an integrated treatment that draws together many of these strands within a unifying framework, revealing not only the range of possible computability concepts but the relationships between them. The book will serve as an ideal introduction to the field for beginning graduate students, as well as a reference for advanced researchers

Turing Computability

Author: Robert I. Soare
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3642319335
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 289

Book Description
Turing's famous 1936 paper introduced a formal definition of a computing machine, a Turing machine. This model led to both the development of actual computers and to computability theory, the study of what machines can and cannot compute. This book presents classical computability theory from Turing and Post to current results and methods, and their use in studying the information content of algebraic structures, models, and their relation to Peano arithmetic. The author presents the subject as an art to be practiced, and an art in the aesthetic sense of inherent beauty which all mathematicians recognize in their subject. Part I gives a thorough development of the foundations of computability, from the definition of Turing machines up to finite injury priority arguments. Key topics include relative computability, and computably enumerable sets, those which can be effectively listed but not necessarily effectively decided, such as the theorems of Peano arithmetic. Part II includes the study of computably open and closed sets of reals and basis and nonbasis theorems for effectively closed sets. Part III covers minimal Turing degrees. Part IV is an introduction to games and their use in proving theorems. Finally, Part V offers a short history of computability theory. The author has honed the content over decades according to feedback from students, lecturers, and researchers around the world. Most chapters include exercises, and the material is carefully structured according to importance and difficulty. The book is suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in computer science and mathematics and researchers engaged with computability and mathematical logic.

Proofs and Algorithms

Author: Gilles Dowek
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0857291211
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 161

Book Description
Logic is a branch of philosophy, mathematics and computer science. It studies the required methods to determine whether a statement is true, such as reasoning and computation. Proofs and Algorithms: Introduction to Logic and Computability is an introduction to the fundamental concepts of contemporary logic - those of a proof, a computable function, a model and a set. It presents a series of results, both positive and negative, - Church's undecidability theorem, Gödel’s incompleteness theorem, the theorem asserting the semi-decidability of provability - that have profoundly changed our vision of reasoning, computation, and finally truth itself. Designed for undergraduate students, this book presents all that philosophers, mathematicians and computer scientists should know about logic.

Computability

Author: Nigel Cutland
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139935607
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 268

Book Description
What can computers do in principle? What are their inherent theoretical limitations? These are questions to which computer scientists must address themselves. The theoretical framework which enables such questions to be answered has been developed over the last fifty years from the idea of a computable function: intuitively a function whose values can be calculated in an effective or automatic way. This book is an introduction to computability theory (or recursion theory as it is traditionally known to mathematicians). Dr Cutland begins with a mathematical characterisation of computable functions using a simple idealised computer (a register machine); after some comparison with other characterisations, he develops the mathematical theory, including a full discussion of non-computability and undecidability, and the theory of recursive and recursively enumerable sets. The later chapters provide an introduction to more advanced topics such as Gödel's incompleteness theorem, degrees of unsolvability, the Recursion theorems and the theory of complexity of computation. Computability is thus a branch of mathematics which is of relevance also to computer scientists and philosophers. Mathematics students with no prior knowledge of the subject and computer science students who wish to supplement their practical expertise with some theoretical background will find this book of use and interest.

Computability Theory

Author: S. Barry Cooper
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1351991965
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 428

Book Description
Computability theory originated with the seminal work of Gödel, Church, Turing, Kleene and Post in the 1930s. This theory includes a wide spectrum of topics, such as the theory of reducibilities and their degree structures, computably enumerable sets and their automorphisms, and subrecursive hierarchy classifications. Recent work in computability theory has focused on Turing definability and promises to have far-reaching mathematical, scientific, and philosophical consequences. Written by a leading researcher, Computability Theory provides a concise, comprehensive, and authoritative introduction to contemporary computability theory, techniques, and results. The basic concepts and techniques of computability theory are placed in their historical, philosophical and logical context. This presentation is characterized by an unusual breadth of coverage and the inclusion of advanced topics not to be found elsewhere in the literature at this level. The book includes both the standard material for a first course in computability and more advanced looks at degree structures, forcing, priority methods, and determinacy. The final chapter explores a variety of computability applications to mathematics and science. Computability Theory is an invaluable text, reference, and guide to the direction of current research in the field. Nowhere else will you find the techniques and results of this beautiful and basic subject brought alive in such an approachable and lively way.

Computability

Author: George Tourlakis
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030832023
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 652

Book Description
This survey of computability theory offers the techniques and tools that computer scientists (as well as mathematicians and philosophers studying the mathematical foundations of computing) need to mathematically analyze computational processes and investigate the theoretical limitations of computing. Beginning with an introduction to the mathematisation of “mechanical process” using URM programs, this textbook explains basic theory such as primitive recursive functions and predicates and sequence-coding, partial recursive functions and predicates, and loop programs. Advanced chapters cover the Ackerman function, Tarski’s theorem on the non-representability of truth, Goedel’s incompleteness and Rosser’s incompleteness theorems, two short proofs of the incompleteness theorem that are based on Lob's deliverability conditions, Church’s thesis, the second recursion theorem and applications, a provably recursive universal function for the primitive recursive functions, Oracle computations and various classes of computable functionals, the Arithmetical hierarchy, Turing reducibility and Turing degrees and the priority method, a thorough exposition of various versions of the first recursive theorem, Blum’s complexity, Hierarchies of primitive recursive functions, and a machine-independent characterisation of Cobham's feasibly computable functions.

Theories of Computability

Author: Nicholas Pippenger
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521553803
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 268

Book Description
A mathematically sophisticated introduction to Turing's theory, Boolean functions, automata, and formal languages.

Computability and Unsolvability

Author: Martin Davis
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486151069
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 292

Book Description
Classic graduate-level introduction to theory of computability. Discusses general theory of computability, computable functions, operations on computable functions, Turing machines self-applied, unsolvable decision problems, applications of general theory, mathematical logic, Kleene hierarchy, more.