this paper. Research for this paper was partly supported by MURST, grant no. 9911263337_004

deterministic computation over the real numbers

conditions

We discuss several ways of making precise the informal concept of physical determinism, drawing on ideas from mathematical logic and computability theory. We outline a programme of investigating these notions of determinism in detail for specific, precisely articulated physical theories. We make a start on our programme by proposing a general logical framework for describing physical theories, and analysing several possible formulations of a simple Newtonian theory from the point of view of determinism. Our emphasis throughout is on clarifying the precise physical and metaphysical assumptions that typically underlie a claim that some physical theory is ‘deterministic’. A sequel paper is planned, in which we shall apply similar methods to the analysis of other physical theories. Along the way, we discuss some possible repercussions of this kind of investigation for both physics and logic. 1

The intuition guiding the de…nition of computation has shifted over time, a process that is re‡ected in the changing formulations of the Church-Turing thesis. The theory of computation began with logic and gradually moved to the capacity of …nite automata. Consequently, modern computer models rely on general physical principles, with quantum computers representing the extreme case. The paper discusses this development, and the challenges to the Church-Turing thesis in its physical form, in particular, Kieu’s quantum computer and relativistic hyper-computation. Finally, the robustness of the boundary between polynomial and exponential time complexity is considered in connection with quantum computers and quantum information theory. Key words: Church-Turing thesis, hyper-computation, quantum computers 1 The Church-Turing thesis and the meaning of ‘computable function’ The common formulation of the Church-Turing thesis runs as follows: Every computable function is computable by a Turing machine

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This paper investigates the view that digital hypercomputing is a good reason for rejection or re-interpretation of the Church-Turing thesis. After suggestion that such re-interpretation is historically problematic and often involves attack on a straw man (the ‘maximality thesis’), it discusses proposals for digital hypercomputing with “Zeno-machines”, i.e. computing machines that compute an infinite number of computing steps in finite time, thus performing supertasks. It argues that effective computing with Zeno-machines falls into a dilemma: either they are specified such that they do not have output states, or they are specified such that they do have output states, but involve contradiction. Repairs though noneffective methods or special rules for semi-decidable problems are sought, but not found. The paper concludes that hypercomputing supertasks are impossible in the actual world and thus no reason for rejection of the Church-Turing thesis in its traditional interpretation. 1

The development of the mathematical theory of computability was motivated in large part by the foundational crisis in mathematics. D. Hilbert suggested an antidote to all the foundational problems that were discovered in the late 19th century: his proposal, in essence, was to formalize mathematics and construct a finite set of axioms that are strong enough to prove all proper theorems, but no more. Thus a proof of consistency and a proof of completeness were required. These proofs should be carried only by strictly finitary means so as to be beyond any reasonable criticism. As Hilbert pointed out [19], to carry out this project one needs to develop a better understanding of proofs as objects of mathematical discourse: To reach our goal, we must make the proofs as such the object of our investigation; we are thus compelled to a sort of proof theory which studies operations with the proofs themselves. Furthermore, Hilbert hoped to find a single, mechanical procedure that would, at least in principle, provide correct answers to all well-defined questions

We describe axiomatizations of several aspects of effectiveness: effectiveness of transitions; effectiveness relative to oracles; and absolute effectiveness, as posited by the Church-Turing Thesis. Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things. —Peter F. Drucker

Over the past two decades, Yuri Gurevich and his colleagues have formulated axiomatic foundations for the notion of algorithm, be it classical, interactive, or parallel, and formalized them in the new generic framework of abstract state machines. This approach has recently been extended to suggest a formalization of the notion of effective computation over arbitrary countable domains. The central notions are summarized herein. 1