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LFCS Seminar


Fast exhaustive search over infinite search spaces.

Martin Escardo

University of Birmingham

4pm Tuesday 5th September 2006
Room 2511, JCMB, King's Buildings


Abstract

It is known that there are infinite sets that admit exhaustive search in finite time. The aim of this talk is to (1) make this surprising fact available to a more general audience, (2) develop new results about the nature of mechanically exhaustible sets, and (3) perform first steps about the efficiency of exhaustive search over infinite sets. Regarding (2), we show that exhaustible sets are closed under computable images and finite and countable products, giving meaningful examples, and, regarding (3), we discuss instances of exhaustive searches that defy intuition not only for being over infinite sets, but also for being faster than one would expect, briefly indicating what is behind this unexpected behaviour. We also indicate potential applications to automatic program verification and model checking.

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