Related papers: Guessing, Mind-changing, and the Second Ambiguous …

In this work we show that the ordering ambiguity on quantization depends on the representation choice. This property is then used to solve unambiguously some particular systems. Finally, we speculate on the consequences for more involved…

Let $(P,\leq)$ be a finite poset (partially ordered set), where $P$ has cardinality $n$. Consider linear extensions of $P$ as permutations $x_1x_2\cdots x_n$ in one-line notation. For distinct elements $x,y\in P$, we define…

In \cite{Ca2016} and \cite{Ca2018}, we introduced a notion of effective reducibility between set-theoretical $\Pi_{2}$-statements; in \cite{Ca2025}, this was extended to statements of arbitrary (potentially even infinite) quantifier…

The emptiness and containment problems for probabilistic automata are natural quantitative generalisations of the classical language emptiness and inclusion problems for Boolean automata. It is well known that both problems are undecidable.…

Tarski initiated a logic-based approach to formal geometry that studies first-order structures with a ternary betweenness relation \beta, and a quaternary equidistance relation \equiv. Tarski established, inter alia, that the first-order…

Iterative refinement -- start with a random guess, then iteratively improve the guess -- is a useful paradigm for representation learning because it offers a way to break symmetries among equally plausible explanations for the data. This…

We show that Morley's theorem on the number of countable models of a countable first-order theory becomes an undecidable statement when extended to second-order logic. More generally, we calculate the number of equivalence classes of…

Here it is shown that standard set theory can be interpreted in a theory about order. The ordering here is about non-extensional flat classes, i.e. classes that are not elements of classes. So, stipulating a nearly well order over all those…

Let WO$(\omega^\omega)$ be the statement that the ordinal number $\omega^\omega$ is well ordered. WO$(\omega^\omega)$ has occurred several times in the reverse-mathematical literature. The purpose of this expository note is to discuss the…

We consider a simple model of imprecise comparisons: there exists some $\delta>0$ such that when a subject is given two elements to compare, if the values of those elements (as perceived by the subject) differ by at least $\delta$, then the…

We identify a notion of reducibility between predicates, called instance reducibility, which commonly appears in reverse constructive mathematics. The notion can be generally used to compare and classify various principles studied in…

The problem of guessing a random string is revisited. A close relation between guessing and compression is first established. Then it is shown that if the sequence of distributions of the information spectrum satisfies the large deviation…

Preferences for mixing can reveal ambiguity perception and attitude on a single event. The validity of the approach is discussed for multiple preference classes including maxmin, maxmax, variational, and smooth second-order preferences. An…

Given a simple Lie algebra $\mathfrak{g}$ and an element $\mu\in\mathfrak{g}^*$, the corresponding shift of argument subalgebra of $\text{S}(\mathfrak{g})$ is Poisson commutative. In the case where $\mu$ is regular, this subalgebra is known…

We use monadic second-order logic to define two-dimensional subshifts, or sets of colorings of the infinite plane. We present a natural family of quantifier alternation hierarchies, and show that they all collapse to the third level. In…

Let $A$ be a commutative Banach algebra with non-empty character space $\Delta(A)$. In this paper, we change the concepts of convergence and boundedness in the classical notion of bounded approximate identity. This work give us a new kind…

We extend the inflationary fixed-point logic, IFP, with a new kind of second-order quantifiers which have (poly-)logarithmic bounds. We prove that on ordered structures the new logic $\exists^{\log^{\omega}}\text{IFP}$ captures the limited…

In despair, as Deligne (2000) put it, of proving the Hodge and Tate conjectures, we can try to find substitutes. For abelian varieties in characteristic zero, Deligne (1982) constructed a theory of Hodge classes having many of the…

The paper demonstrates that falsifiability is fundamental to learning. We prove the following theorem for statistical learning and sequential prediction: If a theory is falsifiable then it is learnable -- i.e. admits a strategy that…

We present and study new definitions of universal and programmable universal unary functions and consider a new simplicity criterion: almost decidability of the halting set. A set of positive integers S is almost decidable if there exists a…