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Is the Mandelbrot Set Decidable?
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· computability theory · ~1 min read
· difficulty 3/5
computability
The problem
Question (Penrose, Blum–Shub–Smale model): is the Mandelbrot set decidable? That is, does there exist a BSS machine over \(\mathbb{R}\) which, given \(c \in \mathbb{C}\), halts with the correct answer to whether \(c\) belongs to the Mandelbrot set?
History & significance
Penrose raised the question in The Emperor's New Mind (1989): the Mandelbrot set looks like the canonical example of a mathematical object whose individual pixels are computable yet whose global membership might not be. Blum–Shub–Smale gave the question teeth by defining computability over the reals; Hertling (2005) showed the Mandelbrot set is computable in a weaker, distance-based model — leaving the BSS-decidability question, the one Penrose meant, exactly where it was.
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References
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