English

The probability distribution as a computational resource for randomness testing

Logic 2014-08-14 v1

Abstract

When testing a set of data for randomness according to a probability distribution that depends on a parameter, access to this parameter can be considered as a computational resource. We call a randomness test Hippocratic if it is not permitted to access this resource. In these terms, we show that for Bernoulli measures μp\mu_p, 0p10\le p\le 1 and the Martin-L\"of randomness model, Hippocratic randomness of a set of data is the same as ordinary randomness. The main idea of the proof is to first show that from Hippocrates-random data one can Turing compute the parameter pp. However, we show that there is no single Hippocratic randomness test such that passing the test implies computing pp, and in particular there is no universal Hippocratic randomness test.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1408.2850,
  title  = {The probability distribution as a computational resource for randomness testing},
  author = {Bjørn Kjos-Hanssen},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1408.2850},
  year   = {2014}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-22T05:27:08.017Z