The logic of justified belief,explicit knowledge,and conclusive evidence

We present a complete, decidable logic for reasoning about a notion of completely trustworthy (“conclusive”) evidence and its relations to justifiable (implicit) belief and knowledge, as well as to their explicit justifications. This logic makes use of a number of evidence-related notions such as availability, admissibility, and “goodness” of a piece of evidence, and is based on an innovative modification of the Fitting semantics for Artemov?s Justification Logic designed to preempt Gettier-type counterexamples. We combine this with ideas from belief revision and awareness logics to provide an account for explicitly justified (defeasible) knowledge based on conclusive evidence that addresses the problem of (logical) omniscience.     

Generalized convex set-valued maps

The aim of this paper is to show that under a mild semicontinuity assumption (the so-called segmentary epi-closedness), the cone-convex (respectively, cone-quasiconvex) set-valued maps can be characterized in terms of weak cone-convexity (respectively, weak cone-quasiconvexity), i.e., the notions obtained by replacing in the classical definitions the conditions of type “for all x,y in the domain and for all t in ]0,1[…” by the corresponding conditions of type “for all x,y in the domain there exists t in ]0,1[….”     

The double negation of the intermediate value theorem

In the context of intuitionistic analysis, we consider the set F consisting of all continuous functions ? from [0,1] to R such that ?(0)=0 and ?(1)=1, and the set I₀ consisting of ?’s in F where there exists x∈[0,1] such that . It is well-known that there are weak counterexamples to the intermediate value theorem, and with Brouwer’s continuity principle we have I₀≠F. However, there exists no satisfying answer to . We try to answer to this question by reducing it to a schema (which we call ) about intuitionistic decidability that asserts “there exists an intuitionistically enumerable set that is not intuitionistically decidable”. We also introduce the notion of strong Specker double sequence, and prove that the existence of such a double sequence is equivalent to the existence of a function ?∈F_mon where .     

How much randomness is needed for statistics?

In algorithmic randomness, when one wants to define a randomness notion with respect to some non-computable measure λ, a choice needs to be made. One approach is to allow randomness tests to access the measure λ as an oracle (which we call the “classical approach”). The other approach is the opposite one, where the randomness tests are completely effective and do not have access to the information contained in λ (we call this approach “Hippocratic”). While the Hippocratic approach is in general much more restrictive, there are cases where the two coincide. The first author showed in 2010 that in the particular case where the notion of randomness considered is Martin-Löf randomness and the measure λ is a Bernoulli measure, classical randomness and Hippocratic randomness coincide. In this paper, we prove that this result no longer holds for other notions of randomness, namely computable randomness and stochasticity.     

Almost disjoint large subsets of semigroups

There are several notions of largeness in a semigroup S that originated in topological dynamics. Among these are thick, central, syndetic and piecewise syndetic. Of these, central sets are especially interesting because they are partition regular and are guaranteed to contain substantial combinatorial structure. It is known that in (N,+) any central set may be partitioned into infinitely many pairwise disjoint central sets. We extend this result to a large class of semigroups (including (N,+)) by showing that if S is a semigroup in this class which has cardinality κ then any central set can be partitioned into κ many pairwise disjoint central sets. We also show that for this same class of semigroups, if there exists a collection of μ almost disjoint subsets of any member S, then any central subset of S contains a collection of μ almost disjoint central sets. The same statement applies if “central” is replaced by “thick”; and in the case that the semigroup is left cancellative, “central” may be replaced by “piecewise syndetic”. The situation with respect to syndetic sets is much more restrictive. For example, there does not exist an uncountable collection of almost disjoint syndetic subsets of N. We investigate the extent to which syndetic sets can be split into disjoint syndetic sets.     

EKR type inequalities for 4-wise intersecting families

Let 1?t?7 be an integer and let F be a k-uniform hypergraph on n vertices. Suppose that |A∩B∩C∩D|?t holds for all A,B,C,D∈F. Then we have if holds for some ε>0 and all n>n₀(ε). We apply this result to get EKR type inequalities for “intersecting and union families” and “intersecting Sperner families.”     

The Oshima-Sekiguchi and Liouville theorems on Heintze groups

Let L be an elliptic operator on a Riemannian manifold M. A function F annihilated by L is said to be L-harmonic. F is said to have moderate growth if and only if F grows at most exponentially in the Riemannian distance. If M is a rank-one symmetric space and L is the Laplace-Beltrami operator for M, the Oshima-Sekiguchi theorem [T. Oshima, J. Sekiguchi, Eigenspaces of invariant differential operators on an affine symmetric space, Invent. Math. 57 (1980) 1-81] states that a L-harmonic function F has moderate growth if and only if F is the Poisson integral of a distribution on the Furstenberg boundary. In this work we prove that this result generalizes to a very large class of homogeneous Riemannian manifolds of negative curvature. We also (i) prove a Liouville type theorem that characterizes the “polynomial-like” harmonic functions which vanish on the boundary in terms of their growth properties, (ii) describe all “polynomial-like” harmonic functions, and (iii) give asymptotic expansions for the Poisson kernel. One consequence of this work is that every Schwartz distribution on the boundary is the boundary value for a L-harmonic function F which is uniquely determined modulo “polynomial-like” harmonic functions.     

Covering with universally Baire operators

We introduce a covering conjecture and show that it holds below A_DR+“Θ is regular”$A{D}_{\mathbb{R}}+\text{“}\Theta \text{is regular”}$. We then use it to show that in the presence of mild large cardinal axioms, PFA   implies that there is a transitive model containing the reals and ordinals and satisfying A_DR+“Θ is regular”$A{D}_{\mathbb{R}}+\text{“}\Theta \text{is regular”}$. The method used to prove the Main Theorem of this paper is the core model induction. The paper contains the first application of the core model induction that goes significantly beyond the region of AD⁺+_θ0<Θ$A{D}^{+}+{\theta }_0<\Theta$.     

A new rating system for duplicate bridge

We propose a new way to rate individual duplicate bridge players, which we believe is superior to the masterpoint system currently used by the American Contract Bridge League. This method measures only a player’s current skill level, and not how long or how frequently he has played. It is based on simple ideas from the theory of statistics and from linear algebra, and should be easy to implement.One particular issue which can occur within any system proposing to rate individual players using results earned by partnerships is what we call the “nonuniqueness problem”. This refers to the occasional inability for data to distinguish who is the “good player” and who is the “bad player” within particular partnerships. We prove that under our system this problem disappears if either (a) a certain “partnership graph” has no bipartite components, or if (b) every player is required to participate in at least one individual game.Finally, we present some data from a bridge club in Reno, NV. They show that even if (a) and (b) do not hold, our system will provide (unique) ratings for most players.     

Global attractivity in delayed differential equations with applications to “food-limited” population model

A new criterion is built, which guarantees the global attractivity of zero solution for equation having the form x^′(t)=(1+x(t))F(t,xt). The behavior of global solution on R is also addressed. As an application, we study the existence of globally attractive positive almost periodic solution for the “food-limited” single population model. Our results improve those in literature.     

An uncertainty principle for function fields

In a recent paper, Granville and Soundararajan (2007) [5] proved an “uncertainty principle” for arithmetic sequences, which limits the extent to which such sequences can be well-distributed in both short intervals and arithmetic progressions. In the present paper we follow the methods of Granville and Soundararajan (2007) [5] and prove that a similar phenomenon holds in Fq[t].     

An “almost” full embedding of the category of graphs into the category of groups

We construct a functor F:Graphs→Groups which is faithful and “almost” full, in the sense that every nontrivial group homomorphism FX→FY is a composition of an inner automorphism of FY and a homomorphism of the form Ff, for a unique map of graphs f:X→Y. When F is composed with the Eilenberg-Mac Lane space construction K(FX,1) we obtain an embedding of the category of graphs into the unpointed homotopy category which is full up to null-homotopic maps.We provide several applications of this construction to localizations (i.e. idempotent functors); we show that the questions:

(1)

Is every orthogonality class reflective?

(2)

Is every orthogonality class a small-orthogonality class?

have the same answers in the category of groups as in the category of graphs. In other words they depend on set theory: (1) is equivalent to weak Vopěnka's principle and (2) to Vopěnka's principle. Additionally, the second question, considered in the homotopy category, is also equivalent to Vopěnka's principle.     

Lindelöf spaces which are Menger, Hurewicz, Alster, productive, or D

We discuss relationships in Lindelöf spaces among the properties “Menger”, “Hurewicz”, “Alster”, “productive”, and “D”.     

The strength of extensionality II — Weak weak set theories without infinity

By obtaining several new results on Cook-style two-sorted bounded arithmetic, this paper measures the strengths of the axiom of extensionality and of other weak fundamental set-theoretic axioms in the absence of the axiom of infinity, following the author’s previous work [K. Sato, The strength of extensionality I — weak weak set theories with infinity, Annals of Pure and Applied Logic 157 (2009) 234-268] which measures them in the presence. These investigations provide a uniform framework in which three different kinds of reverse mathematics-Friedman-Simpson’s “orthodox” reverse mathematics, Cook’s bounded reverse mathematics and large cardinal theory-can be reformulated within one language so that we can compare them more directly.     

Interpretation of De Finetti coherence criterion in ?ukasiewicz Logic

De Finetti gave a natural definition of “coherent probability assessment” β:E→[0,1] of a set E={X₁,…,X_m} of “events” occurring in an arbitrary set W⊆[0,1]^E of “possible worlds”. In the particular case of yes-no events, (where W⊆{0,1}^E), Kolmogorov axioms can be derived from his criterion. While De Finetti’s approach to probability was logic-free, we construct a theory Θ in infinite-valued ?ukasiewicz propositional logic, and show: (i) a possible world of W is a valuation satisfying Θ, (ii) β is coherent iff it is a convex combination of valuations satisfying Θ, (iii) iff β agrees on E with a state of the Lindenbaum MV-algebra of Θ, (iv) iff for some Borel probability measure μ on W. Thus ?ukasiewicz semantics, MV-algebraic (finitely additive) states, and (countably additive) Borel probability measures provide a universal representation of coherent assessments of events occurring in any conceivable set of possible worlds.     

Compact spaces, elementary submodels, and the countable chain condition, II

Given a space 〈X,T〉 in an elementary submodel of H(θ), define XM to be X∩M with the topology generated by . It is established that if XM is compact and satisfies the countable chain condition, while X is not scattered and has cardinality less than the first inaccessible cardinal, then X=XM. If the character of XM is a member of M, then “inaccessible” may be replaced by “1-extendible”.     

Global singularization and the failure of SCH

We say that κ is μ-hypermeasurable (or μ-strong) for a cardinal μ≥κ⁺ if there is an embedding j:V→M with critical point κ such that H(μ)^V is included in M and j(κ)>μ. Such a j is called a witnessing embedding.Building on the results in [7], we will show that if V satisfies GCH and F is an Easton function from the regular cardinals into cardinals satisfying some mild restrictions, then there exists a cardinal-preserving forcing extension V^∗ where F is realised on all V-regular cardinals and moreover, all F(κ)-hypermeasurable cardinals κ, where F(κ)>κ⁺, with a witnessing embedding j such that either j(F)(κ)=κ⁺ or j(F)(κ)≥F(κ), are turned into singular strong limit cardinals with cofinality ω. This provides some partial information about the possible structure of a continuum function with respect to singular cardinals with countable cofinality.As a corollary, this shows that the continuum function on a singular strong limit cardinal κ of cofinality ω is virtually independent of the behaviour of the continuum function below κ, at least for continuum functions which are simple in that 2^α∈{α⁺,α⁺⁺} for every cardinal α below κ (in this case every κ⁺⁺-hypermeasurable cardinal in the ground model is witnessed by a j with either j(F)(κ)≥F(κ) or j(F)(κ)=κ⁺).     

Galois averages

In this paper, we introduce a notion of “Galois average” which allows us to give a suitable answer to the question: how can one extend a finite Galois extension E/F by a prime degree extension N/E to get a Galois extension N/F? Here, N/E is not necessarily a Kummer extension.