A strong version of Cobham's theorem

Philipp Hieronymi, Christian Schulz

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Let k,g.,"≥ 2 be two multiplicatively independent integers. Cobham's famous theorem states that a set X† g.,• is both k-recognizable and g.,"-recognizable if and only if it is definable in Presburger arithmetic. Here we show the following strengthening: let X† g.,•m be k-recognizable, let Y† g.,•n be g.,"-recognizable such that both X and Y are not definable in Presburger arithmetic. Then the first-order logical theory of (g.,•,+,X,Y) is undecidable. This is in contrast to a well-known theorem of Büchi that the first-order logical theory of (g.,•,+,X) is decidable.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationSTOC 2022 - Proceedings of the 54th Annual ACM SIGACT Symposium on Theory of Computing
EditorsStefano Leonardi, Anupam Gupta
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
Pages1172-1179
Number of pages8
ISBN (Electronic)9781450392648
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 6 2022
Externally publishedYes
Event54th Annual ACM SIGACT Symposium on Theory of Computing, STOC 2022 - Rome, Italy
Duration: Jun 20 2022Jun 24 2022

Publication series

NameProceedings of the Annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing
ISSN (Print)0737-8017

Conference

Conference54th Annual ACM SIGACT Symposium on Theory of Computing, STOC 2022
Country/TerritoryItaly
CityRome
Period6/20/226/24/22

Keywords

  • Cobham's theorem
  • Presburger arithmetic
  • logical theories
  • undecidability

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Software

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