English

How unprovable is Rabin's decidability theorem?

Logic 2015-08-28 v1 Formal Languages and Automata Theory Logic in Computer Science

Abstract

We study the strength of set-theoretic axioms needed to prove Rabin's theorem on the decidability of the MSO theory of the infinite binary tree. We first show that the complementation theorem for tree automata, which forms the technical core of typical proofs of Rabin's theorem, is equivalent over the moderately strong second-order arithmetic theory ACA0\mathsf{ACA}_0 to a determinacy principle implied by the positional determinacy of all parity games and implying the determinacy of all Gale-Stewart games given by boolean combinations of Σ20{\bf \Sigma^0_2} sets. It follows that complementation for tree automata is provable from Π31\Pi^1_3- but not Δ31\Delta^1_3-comprehension. We then use results due to MedSalem-Tanaka, M\"ollerfeld and Heinatsch-M\"ollerfeld to prove that over Π21\Pi^1_2-comprehension, the complementation theorem for tree automata, decidability of the MSO theory of the infinite binary tree, positional determinacy of parity games and determinacy of Bool(Σ20)\mathrm{Bool}({\bf \Sigma^0_2}) Gale-Stewart games are all equivalent. Moreover, these statements are equivalent to the Π31\Pi^1_3-reflection principle for Π21\Pi^1_2-comprehension. It follows in particular that Rabin's decidability theorem is not provable in Δ31\Delta^1_3-comprehension.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1508.06780,
  title  = {How unprovable is Rabin's decidability theorem?},
  author = {Leszek Aleksander Kołodziejczyk and Henryk Michalewski},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1508.06780},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

21 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-22T10:42:41.535Z