Weihrauch Degrees Research Articles

Minimal covers in the Weihrauch degrees

In this paper, we study the existence of minimal covers and strong minimal covers in the Weihrauch degrees. We characterize when a problem f f is a minimal cover or strong minimal cover of a problem h h . We show that strong minimal covers only exist in the cone below i d id and that the Weihrauch lattice above i d id is dense. From this, we conclude that the degree of i d id is first-order definable in the Weihrauch degrees and that the first-order theory of the Weihrauch degrees is computably isomorphic to third-order arithmetic.

Searching problems above arithmetical transfinite recursion

We investigate some Weihrauch problems between ATR2 and Cωω. We show that the fixed point theorem for monotone operators on the Cantor space (a weaker version of the Knaster-Tarski theorem) is not Weihrauch reducible to ATR2. Furthermore, we introduce the ω-model reflection ATR2rfn of ATR2 and show that it is an upper bound for problems provable from the axiomatic system ATR0 which are of the form ∀X(θ(X)→∃Yη(X,Y)) with arithmetical formulas θ,η. We also show that Weihrauch degrees of relativized least fixed point theorems for monotone operators on the Cantor space form a linear hierarchy between ATR2rfn and Cωω.

On the Weihrauch degree of the additive Ramsey theorem

We characterize the strength, in terms of Weihrauch degrees, of certain problems related to Ramsey-like theorems concerning colourings of the rationals and of the natural numbers. The theorems we are chiefly interested in assert the existence of almost-homogeneous sets for colourings of pairs of rationals respectively natural numbers satisfying properties determined by some additional algebraic structure on the set of colours. In the context of reverse mathematics, most of the principles we study are equivalent to Σ 2 0 -induction over RCA 0 . The associated problems in the Weihrauch lattice are related to TC N ∗ , ( LPO ′ ) ∗ or their product, depending on their precise formalizations.

Weihrauch degrees without roots

We answer the following question by Arno Pauly: “Is there a square root operator on the Weihrauch degrees?”. In fact, we show that there are uncountably many pairwise incomparable Weihrauch degrees without any roots. We also prove that the omniscience principles of LPO and LLPO do not have roots.

On the first-order parts of problems in the Weihrauch degrees

We introduce the notion of the first-order part of a problem in the Weihrauch degrees. Informally, the first-order part of a problem P is the strongest problem with codomaixn ω that is Weihrauch reducible to P. We show that the first-order part is always well-defined, examine some of the basic properties of this notion, and characterize the first-order parts of several well-known problems from the literature.

Notes on overt choice

Overt choice was recently introduced and thoroughly studied by de Brecht, Pauly and Schröder. They give estimates on the Weihrauch degree of overt choice on various spaces, and relate it to the topological properties of the space. In this article, we pursue this line of research, answering some of the questions that were left open. We show that overt choice on the rationals is not limit-computable. We identify the Weihrauch degree of overt choice on the space of natural numbers with the co-finite topology. We prove that the quasi-Polish spaces are the countably-based T 0 -spaces on which a variant of overt choice, called Π ~ 2 0 overt choice, is continuous. It extends a previous result that holds in the class of T 1 -spaces. We also prove an effective version of this equivalence.

Computability Theory: Constructive Applications of the Lefthanded Local Lemma and Characterizations of Some Classes of Cohesive Powers

AbstractThe Lovász local lemma (LLL) is a technique from combinatorics for proving existential results. There are many different versions of the LLL. One of them, the lefthanded local lemma, is particularly well suited for applications to two player games. There are also constructive and computable versions of the LLL. The chief object of this thesis is to prove an effective version of the lefthanded local lemma and to apply it to effectivise constructions of non-repetitive sequences.The second goal of this thesis is to categorize some classes of cohesive powers. We completely describe both the isomorphism types of cohesive powers of equivalence structures and injection structures, as well as clarify the relationship between these cohesive powers and their original structures. We also describe the finite condensation of cohesive powers of computable copies of the integers as a linear order by cohesive sets whose complement are computably enumerable.Finally, we investigate the possibility of decomposing problems in the Weihrauch degrees into a product of first order part and second order part. We give a preliminary result in this direction.Abstract prepared by Daniel Mourad.E-mail: daniel.mourad@uconn.eduURL: https://daniel-mourad.scholar.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/2530/2023/06/ThesisFinalWithRevisions-2.pdf

Effective aspects of Hausdorff and Fourier dimension

In this paper, we study Hausdorff and Fourier dimension from the point of view of effective descriptive set theory and Type-2 Theory of Effectivity. Working in the hyperspace K ( X ) of compact subsets of X, with X = [ 0 , 1 ] d or X = R d , we characterize the complexity of the family of sets having sufficiently large Hausdorff or Fourier dimension. This, in turn, allows us to show that family of all the closed Salem sets is Π 3 0 -complete. One of our main tools is a careful analysis of the effectiveness of a classical theorem of Kaufman. We furthermore compute the Weihrauch degree of the functions computing Hausdorff and Fourier dimension of closed sets.

Topological reducibilities for discontinuous functions and their structures

In this article, we give a full description of the topological many-one degree structure of real-valued functions, recently introduced by Day—Downey—Westrick. We also clarify the relationship between the Martin conjecture and Day—Downey—Westrick’s topological Turing-like reducibility, also known as parallelized continuous strong Weihrauch reducibility, for single-valued functions: Under the axiom of determinacy, we show that the continuous Weihrauch degrees of parallelizable single-valued functions are well-ordered; and moreover, if f has continuous Weihrauch rank α, then f′ has continuous Weihrauch rank α + 1, where f′(x) is defined as the Turing jump of f(x).

Instance reducibility and Weihrauch degrees

We identify a notion of reducibility between predicates, called instance reducibility, which commonly appears in reverse constructive mathematics. The notion can be generally used to compare and classify various principles studied in reverse constructive mathematics (formal Church's thesis, Brouwer's Continuity principle and Fan theorem, Excluded middle, Limited principle, Function choice, Markov's principle, etc.). We show that the instance degrees form a frame, i.e., a complete lattice in which finite infima distribute over set-indexed suprema. They turn out to be equivalent to the frame of upper sets of truth values, ordered by the reverse Smyth partial order. We study the overall structure of the lattice: the subobject classifier embeds into the lattice in two different ways, one monotone and the other antimonotone, and the $\lnot\lnot$-dense degrees coincide with those that are reducible to the degree of Excluded middle. We give an explicit formulation of instance degrees in a relative realizability topos, and call these extended Weihrauch degrees, because in Kleene-Vesley realizability the $\lnot\lnot$-dense modest instance degrees correspond precisely to Weihrauch degrees. The extended degrees improve the structure of Weihrauch degrees by equipping them with computable infima and suprema, an implication, the ability to control access to parameters and computation of results, and by generally widening the scope of Weihrauch reducibility.

A journey through computability, topology and analysis

AbstractThis thesis is devoted to the exploration of the complexity of some mathematical problems using the framework of computable analysis and (effective) descriptive set theory. We will especially focus on Weihrauch reducibility as a means to compare the uniform computational strength of problems. After a short introduction of the relevant background notions, we investigate the uniform computational content of problems arising from theorems that lie at the higher levels of the reverse mathematics hierarchy.We first analyze the strength of the open and clopen Ramsey theorems. Since there is not a canonical way to phrase these theorems as multi-valued functions, we identify eight different multi-valued functions (five corresponding to the open Ramsey theorem and three corresponding to the clopen Ramsey theorem) and study their degree from the point of view of Weihrauch, strong Weihrauch, and arithmetic Weihrauch reducibility.We then discuss some new operators on multi-valued functions and study their algebraic properties and the relations with other previously studied operators on problems. In particular, we study the first-order part and the deterministic part of a problem f, capturing the Weihrauch degree of the strongest multi-valued problem that is reducible to f and that, respectively, has codomain $\mathbb {N}$ or is single-valued.These notions proved to be extremely useful when exploring the Weihrauch degree of the problem $\mathsf {DS}$ of computing descending sequences in ill-founded linear orders. They allow us to show that $\mathsf {DS}$ , and the Weihrauch equivalent problem $\mathsf {BS}$ of finding bad sequences through non-well quasi-orders, while being very “hard” to solve, are rather weak in terms of uniform computational strength. We then generalize $\mathsf {DS}$ and $\mathsf {BS}$ by considering $\boldsymbol {\Gamma }$ -presented orders, where $\boldsymbol {\Gamma }$ is a Borel pointclass or $\boldsymbol {\Delta }^1_1$ , $\boldsymbol {\Sigma }^1_1$ , $\boldsymbol {\Pi }^1_1$ . We study the obtained $\mathsf {DS}$ -hierarchy and $\mathsf {BS}$ -hierarchy of problems in comparison with the (effective) Baire hierarchy and show that they do not collapse at any finite level.Finally, we work in the context of geometric measure theory and we focus on the characterization, from the point of view of descriptive set theory, of some conditions involving the notions of Hausdorff/Fourier dimension and Salem sets. We first work in the hyperspace $\mathbf {K}([0,1])$ of compact subsets of $[0,1]$ and show that the closed Salem sets form a $\boldsymbol {\Pi }^0_3$ -complete family. This is done by characterizing the complexity of the family of sets having sufficiently large Hausdorff or Fourier dimension. We also show that the complexity does not change if we increase the dimension of the ambient space and work in $\mathbf {K}([0,1]^d)$ . We also generalize the results by relaxing the compactness of the ambient space and show that the closed Salem sets are still $\boldsymbol {\Pi }^0_3$ -complete when we endow $\mathbf {F}(\mathbb {R}^d)$ with the Fell topology. A similar result holds also for the Vietoris topology.We conclude by analyzing the same notions from the point of view of effective descriptive set theory and Type-2 Theory of Effectivity, and show that the complexities remain the same also in the lightface case. In particular, we show that the family of all the closed Salem sets is $\Pi ^0_3$ -complete. We furthermore characterize the Weihrauch degree of the functions computing Hausdorff and Fourier dimension of closed sets.Abstract prepared by Manlio Valenti.E-mail:manliovalenti@gmail.com

An inside/outside Ramsey theorem and recursion theory

Inspired by Ramsey’s theorem for pairs, Rival and Sands proved what we refer to as an inside/outside Ramsey theorem: every infinite graph G G contains an infinite subset H H such that every vertex of G G is adjacent to precisely none, one, or infinitely many vertices of H H . We analyze the Rival–Sands theorem from the perspective of reverse mathematics and the Weihrauch degrees. In reverse mathematics, we find that the Rival–Sands theorem is equivalent to arithmetical comprehension and hence is stronger than Ramsey’s theorem for pairs. We also identify a weak form of the Rival–Sands theorem that is equivalent to Ramsey’s theorem for pairs. We turn to the Weihrauch degrees to give a finer analysis of the Rival–Sands theorem’s computational strength. We find that the Rival–Sands theorem is Weihrauch equivalent to the double jump of weak König’s lemma. We believe that the Rival–Sands theorem is the first natural theorem shown to exhibit exactly this strength. Furthermore, by combining our result with a result of Brattka and Rakotoniaina, we obtain that solving one instance of the Rival–Sands theorem exactly corresponds to simultaneously solving countably many instances of Ramsey’s theorem for pairs. Finally, we show that the uniform computational strength of the weak Rival–Sands theorem is weaker than that of Ramsey’s theorem for pairs by showing that a number of well-known consequences of Ramsey’s theorem for pairs do not Weihrauch reduce to the weak Rival–Sands theorem. We also address an apparent gap in the literature concerning the relationship between Weihrauch degrees corresponding to the ascending/descending sequence principle and the infinite pigeonhole principle.

A COMPARISON OF VARIOUS ANALYTIC CHOICE PRINCIPLES

AbstractWe investigate computability theoretic and descriptive set theoretic contents of various kinds of analytic choice principles by performing a detailed analysis of the Medvedev lattice of $\Sigma ^1_1$ -closed sets. Among others, we solve an open problem on the Weihrauch degree of the parallelization of the $\Sigma ^1_1$ -choice principle on the integers. Harrington’s unpublished result on a jump hierarchy along a pseudo-well-ordering plays a key role in solving this problem.

FINDING DESCENDING SEQUENCES THROUGH ILL-FOUNDED LINEAR ORDERS

AbstractIn this work we investigate the Weihrauch degree of the problem Decreasing Sequence ( $\mathsf {DS}$ ) of finding an infinite descending sequence through a given ill-founded linear order, which is shared by the problem Bad Sequence ( $\mathsf {BS}$ ) of finding a bad sequence through a given non-well quasi-order. We show that $\mathsf {DS}$ , despite being hard to solve (it has computable inputs with no hyperarithmetic solution), is rather weak in terms of uniform computational strength. To make the latter precise, we introduce the notion of the deterministic part of a Weihrauch degree. We then generalize $\mathsf {DS}$ and $\mathsf {BS}$ by considering $\boldsymbol {\Gamma }$ -presented orders, where $\boldsymbol {\Gamma }$ is a Borel pointclass or $\boldsymbol {\Delta }^1_1$ , $\boldsymbol {\Sigma }^1_1$ , $\boldsymbol {\Pi }^1_1$ . We study the obtained $\mathsf {DS}$ -hierarchy and $\mathsf {BS}$ -hierarchy of problems in comparison with the (effective) Baire hierarchy and show that they do not collapse at any finite level.

Forests describing Wadge degrees and topological Weihrauch degrees of certain classes of functions and relations

We introduce notions of continuous strong Weihrauch reducibility and of continuous Weihrauch reducibility for functions with range in a preordered set. Then we associate with such functions certain labeled forests and trees and show that Wadge reduci

SEARCHING FOR AN ANALOGUE OF ATR0 IN THE WEIHRAUCH LATTICE

AbstractThere are close similarities between the Weihrauch lattice and the zoo of axiom systems in reverse mathematics. Following these similarities has often allowed researchers to translate results from one setting to the other. However, amongst the big five axiom systems from reverse mathematics, so far $\mathrm {ATR}_0$ has no identified counterpart in the Weihrauch degrees. We explore and evaluate several candidates, and conclude that the situation is complicated.

Ramsey’s theorem and products in the Weihrauch degrees

We study the positions in the Weihrauch lattice of parallel products of various combinatorial principles related to Ramsey’s theorem. Among other results, we obtain an answer to a question of Brattka, by showing that Ramsey’s theorem for pairs (RT22) is Weihrauch-incomparable to the parallel produc t of the stable Ramsey’s theorem for pairs and the cohesive principle (SRT22×COH).

Games for Functions: Baire Classes, Weihrauch Degrees, Transfinite Computations, and Ranks

Game characterizations of classes of functions in descriptive set theory have their origins in the seminal work of Wadge, with further developments by several others. In this thesis we study such characterizations from several perspectives. We define modifications of Semmes's game characterization of the Borel functions, obtaining game characterizations of the Baire class $\alpha$ functions for each fixed $\alpha < \omega_1$. We also define a construction of games which transforms a game characterizing a class $\Lambda$ of functions into a game characterizing the class of functions which are piecewise $\Lambda$ on a countable partition by $\Pi^0_\alpha$ sets, for each $0 < \alpha < \omega_1$. We then define a parametrized Wadge game by using computable analysis, and show how the parameters affect the class of functions that is characterized by the game. As an application, we recast our games characterizing the Baire classes into this framework. Furthermore, we generalize our game characterizations of function classes to generalized Baire spaces, show how the notion of computability on Baire space can be transferred to generalized Baire spaces, and show that this is appropriate for computable analysis by defining a representation of Galeotti's generalized real line and analyzing the Weihrauch degree of the intermediate value theorem for that space. Finally, we show how the game characterizations of function classes discussed lead in a natural way to a stratification of each class into a hierarchy, intuitively measuring the complexity of functions in that class. This idea and the results presented open new paths for further research.

Comparing Representations for Function Spaces in Computable Analysis

This paper compares different representations (in the sense of computable analysis) of a number of function spaces that are of interest in analysis. In particular subspace representations inherited from a larger function space are compared to more natural representations for these spaces. The formal framework for the comparisons is provided by Weihrauch reducibility. The centrepiece of the paper considers several representations of the analytic functions on the unit disk and their mutual translations. All translations that are not already computable are shown to be Weihrauch equivalent to closed choice on the natural numbers. Subsequently some similar considerations are carried out for representations of polynomials. In this case in addition to closed choice the Weihrauch degree LPO∗ shows up as the difficulty of finding the degree or the zeros. As a final example, the smooth functions are contrasted with functions with bounded support and Schwartz functions. Here closed choice on the natural numbers and the lim degree appear.

How constructive is constructing measures?

Given some set, how hard is it to construct a measure supported by it? We classify some variations of this task in the Weihrauch lattice. Particular attention is paid to Frostman measures on sets with positive Hausdorff dimension. As a side result, the Weihrauch degree of Hausdorff dimension itself is determined.