Universality, optimality, and randomness deficiency

Abstract: A Martin-L\"of test $\mathcal U$ is universal if it captures all non-Martin-L\"of random sequences, and it is optimal if for every ML-test $\mathcal V$ there is a $c \in \omega$ such that $\forall n(\mathcal{V}_{n+c} \subseteq \mathcal{U}_n)$. We study the computational differences between universal and optimal ML-tests as well as the effects that these differences have on both the notion of layerwise computability and the Weihrauch degree of LAY, the function that produces a bound for a given Martin-L\"of random sequence's randomness deficiency. We prove several robustness and idempotence results concerning the Weihrauch degree of LAY, and we show that layerwise computability is more restrictive than Weihrauch reducibility to LAY. Along similar lines we also study the principle RD, a variant of LAY outputting the precise randomness deficiency of sequences instead of only an upper bound as LAY.