In this thesis, we study the complexity of some mathematical problems: in particular, those arising in computable analysis and algorithmic learning theory for algebraic structures. Our study is not limited to these two areas: indeed, in both cases, the results we obtain are tightly connected to ideas and tools coming from different areas of mathematical logic, including for example descriptive set theory and reverse mathematics.

After giving the necessary preliminaries, we first study the uniform computational strength of the Cantor–Bendixson theorem in the Weihrauch lattice. This work falls into the program connecting reverse mathematics and computable analysis via the framework of Weihrauch reducibility. We concentrate on problems related to perfect subsets of Polish spaces, studying the perfect set theorem, the Cantor–Bendixson theorem, and various problems arising from them. As far as we know, this is the first systematic study of problems at the level of $\mathbf {\Pi }^1_1\mathsf {-CA}_0$ in the Weihrauch lattice. We show that the strength of some of the problems we study depends on the topological properties of the Polish space under consideration, while others have the same strength once the space is rich enough.

We continue considering problems related to (induced) subgraphs. We provide results on the (effective) Wadge complexity of sets of graphs, that are also used to determine the Weihrauch degree of certain decision problems. The decision problems we consider are defined for a fixed graph G, and they take as input a graph H, answering whether G is an (induced) subgraph of H: we also consider the opposite problem (i.e., answering whether H is an induced subgraph of G). We conclude this part on (induced) subgraphs considering the Weihrauch degree of “search problems.”These problems are defined for a fixed graph G, and they take as input a graph H such that G is an (induced) subgraph H: the output is a copy of G in H. In both cases, we highlight differences and analogies between the subgraph and the induced subgraph relation.

We then move our attention to algorithmic learning theory, and we present the framework we use to study the learnability of families of algebraic structures: here, given a countable family of pairwise nonisomorphic structures $\mathfrak {K}$, a learner receives larger and larger pieces of an arbitrary copy of a structure in $\mathfrak {K}$ and, at each stage, is required to output a conjecture about the isomorphism type of such a structure. We say that $\mathfrak {K}$ is learnable if there exists a learner which eventually stabilizes to a correct guess. The framework was lacking a method for comparing the complexity of nonlearnable families, and so we propose a solution to this problem using tools coming from invariant descriptive set theory. To do so, we first prove that a family of structures is learnable if and only if its learning domain is continuously reducible to the relation $E_0$ of eventual agreement on infinite binary sequences and then, replacing $E_0$ with Borel equivalence relations of higher complexity, we obtain a new hierarchy of learning problems. This leads to the notion of E-learnability, where a family of structures $\mathfrak {K}$ is E-learnable, for a Borel equivalence relation E, if there is a continuous reduction from the isomorphism relation associated with $\mathfrak {K}$ to E. It is then natural to ask how the notion of E-learnability interacts with “classical” learning paradigms.

Finally, we study the number of mind changes that a learner needs to learn a given family, both from a topological and a combinatorial point of view, and we consider how the complexity of a learner (in terms of Turing reducibility) affects the number of mind changes for learning a given family.

Abstract prepared by Vittorio Cipriani.

E-mail: vittorio.cipriani17@gmail.com.

URL: https://air.uniud.it/handle/11390/1252226.

Saul Aaron Kripke, the most influential philosopher and logician of his generation, died on September 15, 2022, at the age of 81.

This thesis is concerned with extending the underlying logical approach as well as the breadth of applications of the proof mining program to various (mostly previously untreated) areas of nonlinear analysis and optimization, with a particular focus being placed on topics which involve set-valued operators.

For this, we extend the current logical methodology of proof mining by new systems and corresponding so-called logical metatheorems that cover these more involved areas of nonlinear analysis. Most of these systems crucially rely on the use of intensional methods, treating sets with potentially high quantifier complexity in the defining matrix via characteristic functions and axioms that describe only their properties and do not completely characterize the elements of the sets.

The applicability of all of these metatheorems is then substantiated by a range of case studies for the respective areas which in particular also highlight the naturalness of the use of intensional methods in the design of the corresponding systems.

The first new area covered thereby is the theory of nonlinear semigroups induced by corresponding evolution equations for accretive operators. In that context, we present (besides an initial foray into the area from 2015) essentially the first applications of proof mining to the theory of partial differential equations. Concretely, we provide quantitative versions of four central results on the asymptotic behavior of solutions to such equations.

The second new area unlocked in this thesis is that of the continuous dual of a Banach space and its norm (which are also approached via intensional methods). This in particular relies on a proof-theoretically tame treatment of suprema over (certain) bounded sets in this intensional context which is further exploited later on. These systems, which give access to this until now untreated fundamental notion from functional analysis, are then used to provide further substantial extensions to treat various notions from convex analysis like the Fréchet derivative of a convex function, Fenchel conjugates, Bregman distances, and monotone operators on Banach spaces in the sense of Browder.

These systems are then utilized to provide applications in the context of Picard- and Halpern-style iterations of so-called Bregman strongly nonexpansive mappings where we provide both new quantitative and qualitative results.

Lastly, we discuss the key notion of extensionality of a set-valued operator and its relation to set-theoretic maximality principles in more depth (which was already singled out—to some degree—in previous work). We thereby exhibit an issue arising with treating full extensionality in the context of these intensional approaches to set-valued operators and present useful fragments of the full extensionality statement where these issues are avoided.

Corresponding to these fragments, we discuss a range of uniform continuity statements for set-valued operators beyond the usual notion involving the Hausdorff-metric. In particular, in that context, we utilize the previous tame treatment of suprema over bounded sets to also provide the first proof-theoretic treatment of that Hausdorff-metric in the context of systems for proof mining.

The applicability of this treatment of the Hausdorff-metric is then in particular substantiated by a last case study where we provide quantitative information for a Mann-type iteration of set-valued mappings which are nonexpansive w.r.t. the Hausdorff-metric.

The abstract was taken directly from the thesis.

Abstract prepared by Nicholas Pischke, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany

E-mail: pischke@mathematik.tu-darmstadt.de.

URL: https://doi.org/10.26083/tuprints-00026584.