Logic and Theory of Algorithms: 4th Conference on Computability in Europe, CiE 2008 Athens, Greece, June 15-20, 2008, Proceedings (Lecture Notes in ... Computer Science and General Issues)

CiE 2008: Logic and Theory of Algorithms Athens, Greece, June 15–20, 2008 Computability in Europe (CiE) is an informal network of European scientists working on computability theory, including its foundations, technical devel- ment, and applications. Among the aims of the network is to advance our t- oretical understanding of what can and cannot be computed, by any means of computation. Its scienti?c vision is broad: computations may be performed with discrete or continuous data by all kinds of algorithms, programs, and - chines. Computations may be made by experimenting with any sort of physical system obeying the laws of a physical theory such as Newtonian mechanics, quantum theory, or relativity. Computations may be very general, depending on the foundations of set theory; or very speci?c, using the combinatorics of ?nite structures. CiE also works on subjects intimately related to computation, especially theories of data and information, and methods for formal reasoning about computations. The sources of new ideas and methods include practical developments in areas such as neural networks, quantum computation, natural computation, molecular computation, computational learning. Applications are everywhere,especially, in algebra,analysisand geometry, or data types and p- gramming. Within CiE there is general recognition of the underlying relevance of computability to physics and a broad range of other sciences, providing as it does a basic analysis of the causal structure of dynamical systems. Thisvolume,Logic andTheory of Algorithms,istheproceedingsofthefourth in a series of conferences of CiE that was held at the University of Athens, June 15–20, 2008.