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Upper semicomputable sumtests for lower semicomputable semimeasures

Computational Complexity 2013-12-09 v1

Abstract

A sumtest for a discrete semimeasure PP is a function ff mapping bitstrings to non-negative rational numbers such that P(x)f(x)1. \sum P(x)f(x) \le 1 \,. Sumtests are the discrete analogue of Martin-L\"of tests. The behavior of sumtests for computable PP seems well understood, but for some applications lower semicomputable PP seem more appropriate. In the case of tests for independence, it is natural to consider upper semicomputable tests (see [B.Bauwens and S.Terwijn, Theory of Computing Systems 48.2 (2011): 247-268]). In this paper, we characterize upper semicomputable sumtests relative to any lower semicomputable semimeasures using Kolmogorov complexity. It is studied to what extend such tests are pathological: can upper semicomputable sumtests for m(x)m(x) be large? It is shown that the logarithm of such tests does not exceed logx+O(log(2)x)\log |x| + O(\log^{(2)} |x|) (where x|x| denotes the length of xx and log(2)=loglog\log^{(2)} = \log\log) and that this bound is tight, i.e. there is a test whose logarithm exceeds logxO(log(2)x\log |x| - O(\log^{(2)} |x|) infinitely often. Finally, it is shown that for each such test ee the mutual information of a string with the Halting problem is at least loge(x)O(1)\log e(x)-O(1); thus ee can only be large for ``exotic'' strings.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1312.1718,
  title  = {Upper semicomputable sumtests for lower semicomputable semimeasures},
  author = {Bruno Bauwens},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1312.1718},
  year   = {2013}
}

Comments

10 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-22T02:22:00.715Z