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Synthetic Kolmogorov Complexity in Coq

Authors Yannick Forster , Fabian Kunze, Nils Lauermann

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Author Details

Yannick Forster
  • Saarland University, Saarland Informatics Campus, Saarbrücken, Germany
  • Inria, Gallinette Project-Team, Nantes, France
Fabian Kunze
  • Saarland University, Saarland Informatics Campus, Saarbrücken, Germany
Nils Lauermann
  • Saarland University, Saarland Informatics Campus, Saarbrücken, Germany
  • University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Funding

  • Forster, Yannick: received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 101024493.

Acknowledgements

We want to thank Dominik Kirst and Gert Smolka for many fruitful discussions.

Cite As Get BibTex

Yannick Forster, Fabian Kunze, and Nils Lauermann. Synthetic Kolmogorov Complexity in Coq. In 13th International Conference on Interactive Theorem Proving (ITP 2022). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 237, pp. 12:1-12:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2022) https://doi.org/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITP.2022.12

Abstract

We present a generalised, constructive, and machine-checked approach to Kolmogorov complexity in the constructive type theory underlying the Coq proof assistant. By proving that nonrandom numbers form a simple predicate, we obtain elegant proofs of undecidability for random and nonrandom numbers and a proof of uncomputability of Kolmogorov complexity.
We use a general and abstract definition of Kolmogorov complexity and subsequently instantiate it to several definitions frequently found in the literature.
Whereas textbook treatments of Kolmogorov complexity usually rely heavily on classical logic and the axiom of choice, we put emphasis on the constructiveness of all our arguments, however without blurring their essence. We first give a high-level proof idea using classical logic, which can be formalised with Markov’s principle via folklore techniques we subsequently explain. Lastly, we show a strategy how to eliminate Markov’s principle from a certain class of computability proofs, rendering all our results fully constructive.
All our results are machine-checked by the Coq proof assistant, which is enabled by using a synthetic approach to computability: rather than formalising a model of computation, which is well known to introduce a considerable overhead, we abstractly assume a universal function, allowing the proofs to focus on the mathematical essence.

Subject Classification

ACM Subject Classification
  • Theory of computation → Constructive mathematics
  • Theory of computation → Type theory
Keywords
  • Kolmogorov complexity
  • computability theory
  • random numbers
  • constructive matemathics
  • synthetic computability theory
  • constructive type theory
  • Coq

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Supplementary Materials

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