Determination of the fifth Busy Beaver value

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: The bbchallenge Collaboration, Blanchard, Justin, Briggs, Daniel, Deka, Konrad, Fenner, Nathan, Forster, Yannick, Georgiev, Georgi, House, Matthew L., Hunter, Rachel, Iijil, Kądziołka, Maja, Kropitz, Pavel, Ligocki, Shawn, mxdys, Naściszewski, Mateusz, savask, Stérin, Tristan, Xu, Chris, Yuen, Jason, Zimmermann, Théo
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author The bbchallenge Collaboration
Blanchard, Justin
Briggs, Daniel
Deka, Konrad
Fenner, Nathan
Forster, Yannick
Georgiev, Georgi
House, Matthew L.
Hunter, Rachel
Iijil
Kądziołka, Maja
Kropitz, Pavel
Ligocki, Shawn
mxdys
Naściszewski, Mateusz
savask
Stérin, Tristan
Xu, Chris
Yuen, Jason
Zimmermann, Théo
author_facet The bbchallenge Collaboration
Blanchard, Justin
Briggs, Daniel
Deka, Konrad
Fenner, Nathan
Forster, Yannick
Georgiev, Georgi
House, Matthew L.
Hunter, Rachel
Iijil
Kądziołka, Maja
Kropitz, Pavel
Ligocki, Shawn
mxdys
Naściszewski, Mateusz
savask
Stérin, Tristan
Xu, Chris
Yuen, Jason
Zimmermann, Théo
contents The Busy Beaver value $S(n)$ is the maximum number of steps that an $n$-state 2-symbol Turing machine can perform from the all-zero tape before halting. $S$ was historically introduced by Tibor Radó in 1962 as one of the simplest examples of an uncomputable function. We prove that $S(5) = 47,176,870$ using the Coq proof assistant. The proof enumerates $181,385,789$ Turing machines with 5 states and, for each machine, decides whether it halts or not. Our result marks the first determination of a new Busy Beaver value in over 40 years and the first Busy Beaver value ever to be formally verified, attesting to the effectiveness of massively collaborative online research (bbchallenge$.$org).
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_12337
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Determination of the fifth Busy Beaver value
The bbchallenge Collaboration
Blanchard, Justin
Briggs, Daniel
Deka, Konrad
Fenner, Nathan
Forster, Yannick
Georgiev, Georgi
House, Matthew L.
Hunter, Rachel
Iijil
Kądziołka, Maja
Kropitz, Pavel
Ligocki, Shawn
mxdys
Naściszewski, Mateusz
savask
Stérin, Tristan
Xu, Chris
Yuen, Jason
Zimmermann, Théo
Logic in Computer Science
Formal Languages and Automata Theory
Logic
03D10, 03B35 (Primary) 68Q05, 68Q45 (Secondary)
F.1.1; F.4.1; I.2.3; D.2.4; F.4.3
The Busy Beaver value $S(n)$ is the maximum number of steps that an $n$-state 2-symbol Turing machine can perform from the all-zero tape before halting. $S$ was historically introduced by Tibor Radó in 1962 as one of the simplest examples of an uncomputable function. We prove that $S(5) = 47,176,870$ using the Coq proof assistant. The proof enumerates $181,385,789$ Turing machines with 5 states and, for each machine, decides whether it halts or not. Our result marks the first determination of a new Busy Beaver value in over 40 years and the first Busy Beaver value ever to be formally verified, attesting to the effectiveness of massively collaborative online research (bbchallenge$.$org).
title Determination of the fifth Busy Beaver value
topic Logic in Computer Science
Formal Languages and Automata Theory
Logic
03D10, 03B35 (Primary) 68Q05, 68Q45 (Secondary)
F.1.1; F.4.1; I.2.3; D.2.4; F.4.3
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.12337