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An observation on probability versus randomness with applications to complexity classes

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Abstract

Every class C of languages satisfying a simple topological condition is shown to have probability one if and only if it contains some language that is algorithmically random in the sense of Martin-Löf. This result is used to derive separation properties of algorithmically random oracles and to give characterizations of the complexity classesP, BPP, AM, andPH in terms of reducibility to such oracles. These characterizations lead to results like:P =NP if and only if an algorithmically random set exists that is ≤ P btt -hard forNP.

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The work of the first author was supported in part by the Alexander-von-Humboldt-Stiftung and by the National Science Foundation under Grant CCR-8913584 while he visited the Lehrstuhl für Theoretische Informatik, Institut für Informatik, Universität Würzburg, Germany. The work of the second author was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant CCR-8809238 and in part by DIMACS, where he was a visitor while a portion of his work was done.

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Book, R.V., Lutz, J.H. & Wagner, K.W. An observation on probability versus randomness with applications to complexity classes. Math. Systems Theory 27, 201–209 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01578842

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