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Formalizing the Halting Problem in a Constructive Type Theory

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Types for Proofs and Programs (TYPES 2000)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2277))

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Abstract

We present a formalization of the halting problem in Agda, a language based on Martin-Löf’s intuitionistic type theory. The key features are:

  • We give a constructive proof of the halting problem. The “constructive halting problem” is a natural reformulation of the classic variant.

  • A new abstract model of computation is introduced, in type theory.

  • The undecidability of the halting problem is proved via a theorem similar to Rice’s theorem.

The central idea of the formalization is to abstract from the details of specific models of computation. This is accomplished by formulating a number of axioms which describe an abstract model of computation, and proving that the halting problem is undecidable in any model described by these axioms.

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References

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© 2002 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Johannisson, K. (2002). Formalizing the Halting Problem in a Constructive Type Theory. In: Callaghan, P., Luo, Z., McKinna, J., Pollack, R., Pollack, R. (eds) Types for Proofs and Programs. TYPES 2000. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2277. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45842-5_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45842-5_10

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-43287-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45842-5

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