Identification Capacity and Rate-Query Tradeoffs in Classification Systems

We extend classical rate-distortion theory to a discrete classification setting with three resources: tag rate L (bits of storage per entity), identification cost W (queries to determine class membership), and distortion D (misidentification probability). The fundamental question is: how do these resources trade off when an observer must identify an entity's class from limited observations? Information barrier (zero-error capacity). When distinct classes share identical attribute profiles, no algorithm, regardless of computational power, can identify the class from attribute queries alone. Formally, the zero-error identification capacity is zero when the attribute mapping π is not injective on classes. This is a channel capacity result: I(C; π(V)) < H(C). Rate-identification tradeoff. We characterize the Pareto frontier of the (L, W, D) tradeoff space. A nominal tag of L = ⌈log₂ k⌉ bits for k classes yields W = O(1) with D = 0. Without tags (L = 0), identification requires W = Ω(n) queries and may incur D > 0. Converse. Any scheme achieving D = 0 requires L ≥ log₂ k bits. This is tight: nominal tagging achieves the bound with W = O(1). Matroid structure. Minimal sufficient query sets form the bases of a matroid. The identification dimension (the common cardinality of all minimal query sets) is well-defined and computable, connecting to zero-error source coding via graph entropy. Applications. The theory instantiates to type systems (duck vs. nominal typing), databases (attribute vs. key lookup), and biological taxonomy (phenotype vs. species identifier). The unbounded gap Ω(n) vs. O(1) explains convergence toward hybrid systems combining structural observation with nominal tagging. All results are machine-checked in Lean 4 (6,000+ lines, 0 sorry).