Modular machine 2026-10-06
A modular machine of modulus acts on pairs in . Each instruction or has and , and at most one instruction is assigned to each residue pair . The two transition types are and . These finite arithmetic operations can encode a Turing machine; a designated terminal configuration can have a nonrecursive halting set.
A partial computable function is the function computed by a finite program, with an undefined value when its computation never terminates. A total computable function terminates on every input. Fix an effective enumeration of the partial computable functions, with a universal partial computable function . Composition, primitive recursion and unbounded minimization give a machine-independent description of this class. Unbounded minimization is allowed to diverge. The S-m-n theorem permits parameters in a program to be specialized effectively: an algorithm described uniformly in has an index obtained computably from .
The halting set is computably enumerable: simulate all computations in parallel and enumerate each index whose diagonal computation terminates. It is not a computable set. Otherwise the program which terminates exactly when the proposed decision procedure says its own diagonal computation does not terminate gives a contradiction. There is also no effective enumeration consisting exactly of all total computable functions: from such an enumeration the total computable function differs from every listed function. Thus the effective enumeration of partial programs cannot be replaced by a decidable catalogue of total ones.
For the Rice theorem, let be a nontrivial property of partial computable functions, depending on the computed function rather than the program text. First suppose the nowhere-defined function is not in , and choose a program computing some . Uniformly in , define a program which, on input , first waits for to terminate and then runs the computation of . The S-m-n theorem gives a computable index map , and
Consequently a decision procedure for membership in would decide the halting set. If the nowhere-defined function belongs to , apply the same argument to its complement. Every nontrivial extensional property of partial computable functions has an undecidable index set. Syntactic properties of program descriptions are outside this assertion, and the theorem concerns unrestricted program indices, not merely an assumed list of terminating programs.
Here is an explicit Jockusch triple coloring computing the halting set. Choose computable increasing finite stages with union . For , put
This is a computable colouring. An infinite monochromatic set cannot have color : fix its first element and choose two later elements beyond the stage at which stabilizes. Their triple has color .
Suppose is infinite and homogeneous of color . To decide whether using , find with , and then with . For every above , homogeneity gives . Such are unbounded, so . Testing therefore decides . Hence every homogeneous set computes the halting set, and there is no infinite recursive monochromatic set. The infinity qualification is essential: finite homogeneous sets are recursive.
False. We construct a two-generated countable group that cannot embed in any finitely presented group. Choose a subset which is not a recursively enumerable set, for example a positive-integer coding of the complement of the halting set. Such sets exist because there are only countably many finite programs but uncountably many subsets of the positive integers. On generators indexed by , form the possibly infinite-graph Right-angled Artin group
The shift preserves the defining relations and has inverse shift , so it is an automorphism. Form the semidirect product
Its base embeds by the definition of a semidirect product. Since , the group is generated by just and is countable.
The shift-invariant graph groups encode arbitrary sets construction has the exact test
The forward direction for is a defining edge relation. If , kill all vertex generators except . Every defining commutator then either contains a killed generator or is trivial; no relation is imposed between these two retained generators. Thus there is a retraction of onto the rank-two free group on . Their commutator is a nonempty reduced word there, so it is nonidentity in and remains so in .
Now suppose embedded in a finitely presented group . Choose fixed words in its finite generators representing the images of . The null words of are recursively enumerable: enumerate all finite products of conjugates of its relators and their inverses, then freely reduce. Substituting into and dovetailing these enumerations for all would enumerate exactly , contradicting its choice. These finitely many image words may be hard-coded; the argument does not require an algorithm finding an embedding. This proves the enumerable identities of finitely generated subgroups obstruction and supplies a concrete construction of the required countable counterexample.
Word problem for groups 2026-10-14
For a fixed finitely generated group with specified generators, its word problem asks for an algorithm deciding whether an input word represents the identity. For a finitely presented group, positive answers can be enumerated from the relators, but there need not be an algorithm deciding both positive and negative answers. An effective reduction from a nonrecursive halting set proves unsolvability.