English

Undecidability of Network Coding, Conditional Information Inequalities, and Conditional Independence Implication

Information Theory 2023-08-29 v3 math.IT Probability

Abstract

We resolve three long-standing open problems, namely the (algorithmic) decidability of network coding, the decidability of conditional information inequalities, and the decidability of conditional independence implication among random variables, by showing that these problems are undecidable. The proof utilizes a construction inspired by Herrmann's arguments on embedded multivalued database dependencies, a network studied by Dougherty, Freiling and Zeger, together with a novel construction to represent group automorphisms on top of the network.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2205.11461,
  title  = {Undecidability of Network Coding, Conditional Information Inequalities, and Conditional Independence Implication},
  author = {Cheuk Ting Li},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2205.11461},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

20 pages, 8 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-24T11:25:57.487Z