The cohesive principle and the Bolzano-Weierstra{\ss} principle

The aim of this paper is to determine the logical and computational strength of instances of the Bolzano-Weierstra{\ss} principle (BW) and a weak variant of it. We show that BW is instance-wise equivalent to the weak K\"onig's lemma for $\Sigma^0_1$-trees ($\Sigma^0_1$-WKL). This means that from every bounded sequence of reals one can compute an infinite $\Sigma^0_1$-0/1-tree, such that each infinite branch of it yields an accumulation point and vice versa. Especially, this shows that the degrees d >> 0' are exactly those containing an accumulation point for all bounded computable sequences. Let BW_weak be the principle stating that every bounded sequence of real numbers contains a Cauchy subsequence (a sequence converging but not necessarily fast). We show that BW_weak is instance-wise equivalent to the (strong) cohesive principle (StCOH) and - using this - obtain a classification of the computational and logical strength of BW_weak. Especially we show that BW_weak does not solve the halting problem and does not lead to more than primitive recursive growth. Therefore it is strictly weaker than BW. We also discuss possible uses of BW_weak.Comment: corrected typos, slightly improved presentatio

Generalized cohesiveness

We study some generalized notions of cohesiveness which arise naturally in connection with effective versions of Ramsey's Theorem. An infinite set $A$ of natural numbers is $n$--cohesive (respectively, $n$--r--cohesive) if $A$ is almost homogeneous for every computably enumerable (respectively, computable) $2$--coloring of the $n$--element sets of natural numbers. (Thus the $1$--cohesive and $1$--r--cohesive sets coincide with the cohesive and r--cohesive sets, respectively.) We consider the degrees of unsolvability and arithmetical definability levels of $n$--cohesive and $n$--r--cohesive sets. For example, we show that for all $n \ge 2$, there exists a $\Delta^0_{n+1}$ $n$--cohesive set. We improve this result for $n = 2$ by showing that there is a $\Pi^0_2$ $2$--cohesive set. We show that the $n$--cohesive and $n$--r--cohesive degrees together form a linear, non--collapsing hierarchy of degrees for $n \geq 2$. In addition, for $n \geq 2$ we characterize the jumps of $n$--cohesive degrees as exactly the degrees {\bf \geq \jump{0}{(n+1)}} and show that each $n$--r--cohesive degree has jump {\bf > \jump{0}{(n)}}

Low sets without subsets of higher many-one degree

Given a reducibility $\leq_\mathrm{r}$, we say that an infinite set $A$ is $r$-introimmune if $A$ is not $r$-reducible to any of its subsets $B$ with $|A\backslash B|=\infty$. We consider the many-one reducibility $\leq_\mathrm{m}$ and we prove the existence of a low$_1$ $m$-introimmune set in $\Pi^0_1$ and the existence of a low$_1$ bi-$m$-introimmune set