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Some Results on Effective Randomness

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We investigate the characterizations of effective randomness in terms of Martin-Lof tests and martingales. First, we address a question of Ambos-Spies and Kucera, who asked for a characterization of computable randomness in terms of tests. We argue that computable randomness can be characterized in terms of Martin-Lof tests and effective probability distributions on Cantor space. Second, we show that the class of Martin-Lof random sequences coincides with the class of sequences that are random with respect to computable martingale processes; the latter randomness notion was introduced by Hitchcock and Lutz. Third, we analyze the sequence of measures of the components of a universal Martin-Lof test. Kucera and Slaman showed that any component of a universal Martin-Lof test defines a class of Martin-Lof random measure. Further, since the sets in a Martin-Lof test are uniformly computably enumerable, so is the corresponding sequence of measures. We prove an exact converse and hence a characterization. For any uniformly computably enumerable sequence r1, r2,... of reals such that each rn is Martin-Lof random and less than 2-n there is a universal Martin-Lof test U1, U2,... such that Un{0,1} has measure rn.

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Correspondence to Wolfgang Merkle, Nenad Mihailovic or Theodore A. Slaman.

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Merkle, W., Mihailovic, N. & Slaman, T. Some Results on Effective Randomness. Theory Comput Syst 39, 707–721 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00224-005-1212-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00224-005-1212-8

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