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Probl. Peredachi Inf., 2003 Volume 39, Issue 1, Pages 134–165 (Mi ppi210)

This article is cited in 3 papers

On the Role of the Law of Large Numbers in the Theory of Randomness

An. A. Muchnik, A. L. Semenov


Abstract: In the first part of this article, we answer Kolmogorov's question (stated in 1963 in [1]) about exact conditions for the existence of random generators. Kolmogorov theory of complexity permits of a precise definition of the notion of randomness for an individual sequence. For infinite sequences, the property of randomness is a binary property, a sequence can be random or not. For finite sequences, we can solely speak about a continuous property, a measure of randomness. Is it possible to measure randomness of a sequence $t$ by the extent to which the law of large numbers is satisfied in all subsequences of $t$ obtained in an “admissible way”? The case of infinite sequences was studied in [2]. As a measure of randomness (or, more exactly, of nonrandomness) of a finite sequence, we consider the specific deficiency of randomness $\delta$ (Definition 5). In the second part of this paper, we prove that the function $\delta/\ln(1/\delta)$ characterizes the connections between randomness of a finite sequence and the extent to which the law of large numbers is satisfied.

UDC: 621.391.1:519.2


 English version:
Problems of Information Transmission, 2003, 39:1, 119–147

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