English

Decision times of infinite computations

Logic 2022-01-25 v4 Logic in Computer Science

Abstract

The decision time of an infinite time algorithm is the supremum of its halting times over all real inputs. The decision time of a set of reals is the least decision time of an algorithm that decides the set; semidecision times of semidecidable sets are defined similary. It is not hard to see that ω1\omega_1 is the maximal decision time of sets of reals. Our main results determine the supremum of countable decision times as σ\sigma and that of countable semidecision times as τ\tau, where σ\sigma and τ\tau denote the suprema of Σ1\Sigma_1- and Σ2\Sigma_2-definable ordinals, respectively, over Lω1L_{\omega_1}. We further compute analogous suprema for singletons.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2011.04942,
  title  = {Decision times of infinite computations},
  author = {Merlin Carl and Philipp Schlicht and Philip Welch},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2011.04942},
  year   = {2022}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-23T20:02:21.557Z