Determination of the fifth Busy Beaver value
5 hours ago
- #Turing Machines
- #Formal Verification
- #Busy Beaver
- The fifth Busy Beaver value, S(5), is determined to be 47,176,870 using the Coq proof assistant.
- The Busy Beaver function S(n) represents the maximum steps an n-state 2-symbol Turing machine can perform before halting.
- The proof involved enumerating 181,385,789 Turing machines with 5 states and determining their halting status.
- This is the first new Busy Beaver value determined in over 40 years and the first to be formally verified.
- The research highlights the effectiveness of massively collaborative online research, as seen on bbchallenge.org.