Kolmogorov Complexity and Solovay Functions

Abstract

Solovay (1975) proved that there exists a computable upper bound~$f$ of the prefix-free Kolmogorov complexity function~$K$ such that $f(x)=K(x)$ for infinitely many~$x$. In this paper, we consider the class of computable functions~$f$ such that $K(x) leq f(x)+O(1)$ for all~$x$ and $f(x) leq K(x)+O(1)$ for infinitely many~$x$, which we call Solovay functions. We show that Solovay functions present interesting connections with randomness notions such as Martin-L"of randomness and K-triviality