Universal codes of the natural numbers

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

A code of the natural numbers is a uniquely-decodable binary code of the natural numbers with non-decreasing codeword lengths, which satisfies Kraft's inequality tightly. We define a natural partial order on the set of codes, and show how to construct effectively a code better than a given sequence of codes, in a certain precise sense. As an application, we prove that the existence of a scale of codes (a well-ordered set of codes which contains a code better than any given code) is independent of ZFC.

Original languageEnglish
Article number7
JournalLogical Methods in Computer Science
Volume9
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 29 Aug 2013
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Kraft's inequality
  • Universal codes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Theoretical Computer Science
  • General Computer Science

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