The Dirac delta function in two settings of Reverse Mathematics

The program of Reverse Mathematics (Simpson 2009) has provided us with the insight that most theorems of ordinary mathematics are either equivalent to one of a select few logical principles, or provable in a weak base theory. In this paper, we study the properties of the Dirac delta function (Dirac 1927; Schwartz 1951) in two settings of Reverse Mathematics. In particular, we consider the Dirac Delta Theorem, which formalizes the well-known property integral(R) f(x)delta(x)dx = f (0) of the Dirac delta function. We show that the Dirac Delta Theorem is equivalent to weak Konig's Lemma (see Yu and Simpson in Arch Math Log 30(3): 171-180, 1990) in classical Reverse Mathematics. This further validates the status of WWKL0 as one of the 'Big' systems of Reverse Mathematics. In the context of ERNA's Reverse Mathematics (Sanders in J Symb Log 76(2): 637-664, 2011), we show that the Dirac Delta Theorem is equivalent to the Universal Transfer Principle. Since the Universal Transfer Principle corresponds to WKL, it seems that, in ERNA's Reverse Mathematics, the principles corresponding to WKL and WWKL coincide. Hence, ERNA's Reverse Mathematics is actually coarser than classical Reverse Mathematics, although the base theory has lower first-order strength

Bounded variation and the strength of Helly's selection theorem

We analyze the strength of Helly's selection theorem HST, which is the most important compactness theorem on the space of functions of bounded variation. For this we utilize a new representation of this space intermediate between $L_1$ and the Sobolev space W1,1, compatible with the, so called, weak* topology. We obtain that HST is instance-wise equivalent to the Bolzano-Weierstra\ss\ principle over RCA0. With this HST is equivalent to ACA0 over RCA0. A similar classification is obtained in the Weihrauch lattice

Grilliot's trick in Nonstandard Analysis

The technique known as Grilliot's trick constitutes a template for explicitly defining the Turing jump functional $(\exists^2)$ in terms of a given effectively discontinuous type two functional. In this paper, we discuss the standard extensionality trick: a technique similar to Grilliot's trick in Nonstandard Analysis. This nonstandard trick proceeds by deriving from the existence of certain nonstandard discontinuous functionals, the Transfer principle from Nonstandard analysis limited to $\Pi_1^0$-formulas; from this (generally ineffective) implication, we obtain an effective implication expressing the Turing jump functional in terms of a discontinuous functional (and no longer involving Nonstandard Analysis). The advantage of our nonstandard approach is that one obtains effective content without paying attention to effective content. We also discuss a new class of functionals which all seem to fall outside the established categories. These functionals directly derive from the Standard Part axiom of Nonstandard Analysis.Comment: 21 page