Does the $k$th forward difference of Radó's $\Sigma$ eventually dominate every computable function?

551 Views Asked by At

Let $\Sigma$ be Radó's Busy Beaver function, and let $\Delta[\Sigma]$ denote the forward difference of $\Sigma$, such that $\Delta[\Sigma] \ (n) = \Sigma(n+1) - \Sigma(n)$ for all $n \in \mathbb{N}$. Define $\Delta^0[\Sigma] = \Sigma$, and $\Delta^{k+1}[\Sigma] = \Delta[\Delta^{k}[\Sigma]]$, for all $k \in \mathbb{N}$.

Definition: Given functions $f,g$ with the common domain $\mathbb{N}$ and codomains that are subsets of $\mathbb{Z}$, $g$ is said to eventually dominate $f$ iff $g(n) > f(n)$ for all sufficiently large $n\in\mathbb{N}$.

Question: Is it the case that for all $k \in \mathbb{N}$, the function $\Delta^k [\Sigma]$ eventually dominates every computable function $f: \mathbb{N} \rightarrow \mathbb{N}$?

(I believe this is the case, but do not know how to prove it. Any pointers or sources on proving this -- or disproving it, if I'm wrong?)

Here's a difference table showing all the known values for these sequences:

     n:  0      1      2      3      4      5     ...
     ------------------------------------------------
     Σ:  0      1      4      6      13    ≥4098  ...
    ΔΣ:  1      3      2      7     ≥4085  ...
   ΔΔΣ:  2     -1      5     ≥4078  ...
  ΔΔΔΣ: -3      6     ≥4073  ...
 ΔΔΔΔΣ:  9     ≥4067  ...
ΔΔΔΔΔΣ: ≥4058  ...

Known sources: "A note on Busy Beavers and other creatures" (1996), by Ben-Amram, Julstrom, and Zwick, contains the conjecture that for any computable function $f$, there exists a constant $N_f$ such that $\forall n \gt N_f, \Sigma(n+1) > f(\Sigma(n))$. In support of this they prove the weaker result that for any computable function $f$, $\Sigma(n+1) > f(\Sigma(n))$ for infinitely many values of $n$. (Considering $f(x) = 2x$, for example, the conjecture implies that $\Delta[\Sigma]$ eventually dominates every computable function.)

Motivation: In the "Busy Beaver game" class of Turing machines, which eventually halt after starting with a blank tape, the "score" of a machine is the number of $1$s remaining on the tape after halting. A variant of Kolmogorov complexity $C: \mathbb{N} \rightarrow \mathbb{N}$ defines $C(n)$ to be the least $k$ such that $n$ is the score of some $k$-state machine. (cf "Computability and Logic" by Boolos, Burgess & Jeffrey, 2007, p229.) I believe I can show that if the first difference $\Delta[\Sigma]$ eventually dominates every computable function, then this $C$ is not monotonically nondecreasing, i.e., there exist $m \lt n$ such that $C(m) \gt C(n)$.

NB: Due to receiving no satisfactory answer here, I've posted the simplest case of this question on cstheory.SE.

2

There are 2 best solutions below

2
On

Use http://mathworld.wolfram.com/NewtonsForwardDifferenceFormula.html to get $D^k [z] (n)>f(k,n)z(n+k)$ for some computable $f(k,n)$ and every strictly increasing positive function $z$. Thus if $g(n)>D^k [z](n)$ for some computable $g$, then there is a computable bound on any $z(n+k)$. Contradiction.

2
On

For the eventual conclusion "there exist $m<n$ such that $C(m)>C(n)$" it seems to be easier just to prove that for some $k$ there exists a $k$-state machine with a score higher than the number of possible $k$-state machines. Then by the pigeonhole principle there has to be a number less than this that is reached only by a machine with $>k$ states.

Depending on the details, there are at most about $(6k)^{2k}$ different $k$-state machines, and this is easily a computable function. Therefore if add some initial states that preload a large enough $k$ (which can be done in $O(\log k)$ states) we will eventually reach a machine with a score that is high enough relative to its size.