Is Randomness "Native" to Computer Science?

Marie Ferbus-Zanda (1) , Serge Grigorieff (1)

1 LIAFA - Laboratoire d'informatique Algorithmique : Fondements et Applications

We survey the Kolmogorov's approach to the notion of randomness through the Kolmogorov complexity theory. The original motivation of Kolmogorov was to give up a quantitative definition of information. In this theory, an object is randomness in the sense that it has a large information content. Afterwards, we present parts of the work of Martin-Lof, Schnorr, Chaitin and Levin which supply a mathematical notion of randomness throughout diverse theories from the the 60' up to recently.

Keywords: Logic; Computer Science; Information Theory; Kolmogorov Complexity; Randomness

Domains: Logic [math.LO]; Logic in Computer Science [cs.LO]; Computational Complexity [cs.CC]

Marie Ferbus-Zanda, Serge Grigorieff. Is Randomness "Native" to Computer Science?. G. Paun, G. Rozenberg, A. Salomaa. Current Trends in Theoretical Computer Science. Vol2, World Scientific, pp.141-180, 2004. ⟨hal-00201576⟩