Two undecidable decision problems about a non-negative integer n which have a short description in terms of arithmetic
Abstract
We prove that the following problems (1) and (2) are algorithmically undecidable when n∈N. (1) ∃(y_0,...,y_n)∈N^{n+1} ∀i,j,k∈{0,...,n} (((2^{2^{2^j \cdot 3^k}}+1 divides n) ⇒ (y_j+1=y_k))∧((2^{2^{2^i \cdot 3^j \cdot 5^{k+1}}}+1 divides n)⇒(y_i \cdot y_j=y_k))). (2) ∃p,q∈N ((n=2^p \cdot 3^q)∧∀(x_0,...,x_p)∈N^{p+1} ∃(y_0,...,y_p)∈{0,...,q}^{p+1} ∀i,j,k∈{0,...,p} (((x_j+1=x_k)⇒(y_j+1=y_k))∧((x_i \cdot x_j=x_k)⇒(y_i \cdot y_j=y_k)))). For n∈N, let E_n={1=x_k, x_i+x_j=x_k, x_i \cdot x_j=x_k: i,j,k∈{0,...,n}}. For n∈N, f(n) denotes the smallest b∈N such that if a system of equations S⊆E_n has a solution in N^{n+1}, then S has a solution in {0,...,b}^{n+1}. The author proved earlier that the function f:N→N is computable in the limit and eventually dominates every computable function g:N→N. We present a short program in MuPAD which for n∈N prints the sequence {f_i(n)}_{i=0}^∞ of non-negative integers converging to f(n). We prove that no algorithm takes as input a non-negative integer n and decides whether or not ∃p,q∈N ((n=2^p \cdot 3^q)∧∀(x_0,...,x_p)∈N^{p+1} ∃(y_0,...,y_p)∈{0,...,q}^{p+1} ((∀j,k∈{0,...,p} (x_j+1=x_k ⇒ y_j+1=y_k)) ∧ (∀i,j,k∈{0,...,p} (x_i \cdot x_j=x_k ⇒ y_i \cdot y_j=y_k)))). For n∈N, β(n) denotes the smallest b∈N such that if a system of equations S⊆E_n has a unique solution in N^{n+1}, then this solution belongs to {0,...,b}^{n+1}. The author proved earlier that the function β:N→N is computable in the limit and eventually dominates every function δ:N→N with a single-fold Diophantine representation. The computability of β is unknown. We present a short program in MuPAD which for n∈N prints the sequence {β_i(n)}_{i=0}^∞ of non-negative integers converging to β(n).
Fields of Study & Subjects
Computability
Logic
AI Algorithms
Complexity and Algorithms in Graphs
Limits and Structures in Graph Theory
Publication details
- Journal / source
- HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe)
- Publication date
- 2 January 2026
- Language
- EN
- Document type
- Preprint