MIP\(^*\) = RE: a Lean blueprint

8 Downstream results

Potential extensions of the project once the main theorem is in place. They are listed roughly in order of increasing formalization cost. The first two stay within finite-dimensional linear algebra plus elementary functional analysis, while the operator-algebraic consequences require von Neumann algebra infrastructure that largely does not yet exist in Mathlib and would constitute a major sub-project of independent value.

8.1 Uncomputability of the value

Corollary 7.2 is already a headline consequence requiring nothing further: no algorithm can approximate the (synchronous or quantum) value of a nonlocal game to within any constant better than \(\frac12\).

8.2 Separation of quantum and commuting values

Theorem 8.1 Separation

There is an explicit synchronous game \(\mathfrak {G}^{\textsc{Sep}}\) with \(\mathrm{val}^*(\mathfrak {G}^{\textsc{Sep}}) \leq \frac12\) and \(\mathrm{val}^{\mathrm{co}}(\mathfrak {G}^{\textsc{Sep}}) = 1\).

Sketch: apply the reduction of Theorem 6.9 to a machine that searches for a proof of its own non-halting (or any non-halting machine whose game retains a perfect commuting-operator strategy), and track through the pipeline that completeness holds not just for PCC strategies but for commuting-operator (equivalently, tracial) strategies. This commuting completeness property is an additional obligation on Sections 6.26.6 that the blueprint should make explicit when those sections are worked out; it is the only new ingredient beyond the main theorem. An alternative route: if \(\mathrm{val}^*= \mathrm{val}^{\mathrm{co}}\) for all games, then combining Lemma 3.13 (value approximable from below) with the NPA hierarchy  [ 25 ] (commuting value approximable from above) would make the value computable, contradicting Corollary 7.2; this gives a non-explicit separation with much less work, and is the recommended first target.

8.3 Failure of Tsirelson’s problem

Corollary 8.2 Tsirelson’s problem, negative answer
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There exist finite question and answer sets for which the closure \(C_{qa}\) of the set of finite-dimensional quantum correlations is strictly contained in the set \(C_{qc}\) of commuting-operator correlations.

Immediate from Theorem 8.1: the value gap is witnessed by a correlation in \(C_{qc}\) at distance bounded away from \(C_{qa}\). Requires only the definitions of the correlation sets. (Non-closure of the unclosed set \(C_q\) itself is Slofstra’s earlier theorem  [ 13 ] , which also follows, with quantitative bounds, from the machinery here.)

8.4 Refutation of Connes’ Embedding Problem

Corollary 8.3 Connes’ Embedding Problem, negative answer

There is a separable II\(_1\) factor (indeed, a tracial von Neumann algebra generated by finitely many projections) that does not embed into an ultrapower \(\cal {R}^{\omega }\) of the hyperfinite II\(_1\) factor.

Source for the implication.

Tsirelson’s problem is equivalent to CEP by Fritz  [ 15 ] and Junge et al.  [ 14 ] , with the converse direction completed by Ozawa  [ 16 ] . In the synchronous framework the implication is particularly direct: a synchronous correlation is precisely given by projections in a tracial von Neumann algebra summing to \(1\)  [ 18 , 17 ] , and \(C_{qa}\)-type correlations are exactly those arising from \(\cal {R}^\omega \)-embeddable algebras, so Corollary 8.2 for synchronous correlations yields a non-embeddable algebra.

Comments.

This is the deepest formalization challenge on the list: it needs tracial von Neumann algebras, ultraproducts, and the synchronous-correlation correspondence. The synchronous framework adopted in this blueprint (Section 1.3) was chosen partly because it makes this bridge as short as it can be. A reasonable staging: (i) define \(C_{qa}, C_{qc}\) and synchronous correlations; (ii) prove the synchronous correlation–tracial algebra correspondence; (iii) formalize the ultraproduct \(\cal {R}^\omega \) and the equivalence. Step (iii) alone is a landmark for operator algebras in Lean.

8.5 Failure of Kirchberg’s QWEP conjecture

Corollary 8.4 QWEP

Kirchberg’s QWEP conjecture fails: there is a C\(^*\)-algebra that is not a quotient of a C\(^*\)-algebra with the weak expectation property; equivalently, \(C^*(F_2) \otimes _{\min } C^*(F_2) \neq C^*(F_2) \otimes _{\max } C^*(F_2)\).

Equivalent to CEP by Kirchberg’s theorem (see  [ 16 ] ); no new input from the project, but the equivalence itself is another substantial operator-algebra formalization.

8.6 Further directions

Remark 8.5
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Other candidate consequences to record as the project matures: undecidability of the existence of perfect strategies for synchronous games and its group-theoretic reformulations (via the synchronous algebra of a game); quantitative non-closure of \(C_q\) and rates for the NPA hierarchy; uncomputability results for entanglement requirements (\(\mathrm{Ent}(\cdot , \frac12)\) grows faster than any computable function along the halting games), which need the entanglement form of the pipeline (Remark 6.8) rather than the value form adopted here; the commuting-operator counterpart \(\mathrm{MIP}^{\mathrm{co}}= \mathrm{coRE}\)  [ 9 , 10 ] , for which direct parallel repetition for commuting-operator strategies (Theorem 5.5) and Lin’s tracial density theorem (Theorem 5.8) are already formalized; and, more speculatively, connections to the undecidability of the spectral gap and to the existence of non-hyperlinear groups, the latter being not implied by CEP’s failure and best recorded as an open problem.

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