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Chaitin's Constant

Logic, Foundations and Set Theory

A Chaitin constant, or Chaitin omega number, also called a halting probability, is a real number that, informally, represents the probability that a randomly constructed computer program will halt, a construction due to Gregory Chaitin in the field of algorithmic information theory. There are infinitely many halting probabilities, one for each method of encoding programs, but it is common to use the Greek letter omega to refer to them as if there were only one, and the construction is sometimes called Chaitin's construction when no specific encoding is meant. Every halting probability is a normal, transcendental real number that is not computable, meaning no algorithm can compute its digits, and it is Martin-Lof random, meaning no algorithm can even reliably guess its digits.

Facts
Classification
Object Kind
Number 1
Origin Year
1975 2
Connections

In Branch

Source Wikipedia: Chaitin's constant

Is Kind Of Object

Entity-backed identity for the object-kind enum value this mathematical object already carries, resolved to a mathematics concept by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The object-kind fact itself stays on the object unchanged.

Sources
1. Wikipedia: Chaitin's constant
  • Introduction (lede paragraph)
    a Chaitin constant (Chaitin omega number) or halting probability is a real number
  • In Branch: Information Theory, Lead sentence
    In the computer science subfield of algorithmic information theory, a Chaitin constant (Chaitin omega number) or halting probabili
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2. Chaitin's Constant - Wolfram MathWorld
Definition (first paragraph)
Quote, Definition (first paragraph)
introduced by Chaitin (1975), is the halting probability of a universal prefix-free (self-delimiting) Turing machine
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