English

On the recognition problem for limits of entropy functions

Combinatorics 2025-09-09 v1 Information Theory math.IT

Abstract

We prove that there is no algorithm to decide whether a given integer vector is in the closure of the entropic cone Γn\overline{\Gamma_{n}^{*}}. Equivalently, there is no decision procedure to determine whether a given integer-valued function h:P({1,,n})Z0h:\mathcal{P}(\{1,\ldots,n\})\rightarrow\mathbb{Z}_{\ge 0} is a pointwise limit of joint entropy functions. In other words, given such an hh, it is undecidable whether for all ε>0\varepsilon > 0 there exists a finite probability space (Ω,P)(\Omega,P) with random variables X1,,XnX_{1},\ldots,X_{n} such that their joint entropy HH satisfies maxI{1,,n}H(XI)h(I)<ε\max_{I\subseteq\{1,\ldots,n\}}\left|H\left(X_{I}\right)-h\left(I\right)\right|<\varepsilon. This settles the last open case in a sequence of related undecidability results proved by L. K\"{u}hne and the author, with applications in algorithmic information theory. The main new tool is a Desargues'-type theorem for almost entropic polymatroids.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2509.06302,
  title  = {On the recognition problem for limits of entropy functions},
  author = {Geva Yashfe},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.06302},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

24 pages, 10 figures

R2 v1 2026-07-01T05:25:34.666Z