152 research outputs found
The proof-theoretic strength of Ramsey's theorem for pairs and two colors
Ramsey's theorem for -tuples and -colors () asserts
that every k-coloring of admits an infinite monochromatic
subset. We study the proof-theoretic strength of Ramsey's theorem for pairs and
two colors, namely, the set of its consequences, and show that
is conservative over . This
strengthens the proof of Chong, Slaman and Yang that does not
imply , and shows that is
finitistically reducible, in the sense of Simpson's partial realization of
Hilbert's Program. Moreover, we develop general tools to simplify the proofs of
-conservation theorems.Comment: 32 page
Computational reverse mathematics and foundational analysis
Reverse mathematics studies which subsystems of second order arithmetic are
equivalent to key theorems of ordinary, non-set-theoretic mathematics. The main
philosophical application of reverse mathematics proposed thus far is
foundational analysis, which explores the limits of different foundations for
mathematics in a formally precise manner. This paper gives a detailed account
of the motivations and methodology of foundational analysis, which have
heretofore been largely left implicit in the practice. It then shows how this
account can be fruitfully applied in the evaluation of major foundational
approaches by a careful examination of two case studies: a partial realization
of Hilbert's program due to Simpson [1988], and predicativism in the extended
form due to Feferman and Sch\"{u}tte.
Shore [2010, 2013] proposes that equivalences in reverse mathematics be
proved in the same way as inequivalences, namely by considering only
-models of the systems in question. Shore refers to this approach as
computational reverse mathematics. This paper shows that despite some
attractive features, computational reverse mathematics is inappropriate for
foundational analysis, for two major reasons. Firstly, the computable
entailment relation employed in computational reverse mathematics does not
preserve justification for the foundational programs above. Secondly,
computable entailment is a complete relation, and hence employing it
commits one to theoretical resources which outstrip those available within any
foundational approach that is proof-theoretically weaker than
.Comment: Submitted. 41 page
On Tao's "finitary" infinite pigeonhole principle
In 2007, Terence Tao wrote on his blog an essay about soft analysis, hard
analysis and the finitization of soft analysis statements into hard analysis
statements. One of his main examples was a quasi-finitization of the infinite
pigeonhole principle IPP, arriving at the "finitary" infinite pigeonhole
principle FIPP1. That turned out to not be the proper formulation and so we
proposed an alternative version FIPP2. Tao himself formulated yet another
version FIPP3 in a revised version of his essay.
We give a counterexample to FIPP1 and discuss for both of the versions FIPP2
and FIPP3 the faithfulness of their respective finitization of IPP by studying
the equivalences IPP FIPP2 and IPP FIPP3 in the context of reverse
mathematics. In the process of doing this we also introduce a continuous
uniform boundedness principle CUB as a formalization of Tao's notion of a
correspondence principle and study the strength of this principle and various
restrictions thereof in terms of reverse mathematics, i.e., in terms of the
"big five" subsystems of second order arithmetic
On the alleged simplicity of impure proof
Roughly, a proof of a theorem, is âpureâ if it draws only on what is âcloseâ or âintrinsicâ to that theorem. Mathematicians employ a variety of terms to identify pure proofs, saying that a pure proof is one that avoids what is âextrinsic,â âextraneous,â âdistant,â âremote,â âalien,â or âforeignâ to the problem or theorem under investigation. In the background of these attributions is the view that there is a distance measure (or a variety of such measures) between mathematical statements and proofs. Mathematicians have paid little attention to specifying such distance measures precisely because in practice certain methods of proof have seemed self- evidently impure by design: think for instance of analytic geometry and analytic number theory. By contrast, mathematicians have paid considerable attention to whether such impurities are a good thing or to be avoided, and some have claimed that they are valuable because generally impure proofs are simpler than pure proofs. This article is an investigation of this claim, formulated more precisely by proof- theoretic means. After assembling evidence from proof theory that may be thought to support this claim, we will argue that on the contrary this evidence does not support the claim
Reverse mathematics and equivalents of the axiom of choice
We study the reverse mathematics of countable analogues of several maximality
principles that are equivalent to the axiom of choice in set theory. Among
these are the principle asserting that every family of sets has a
-maximal subfamily with the finite intersection property and the
principle asserting that if is a property of finite character then every
set has a -maximal subset of which holds. We show that these
principles and their variations have a wide range of strengths in the context
of second-order arithmetic, from being equivalent to to being
weaker than and incomparable with . In
particular, we identify a choice principle that, modulo induction,
lies strictly below the atomic model theorem principle and
implies the omitting partial types principle
Open questions about Ramsey-type statements in reverse mathematics
Ramsey's theorem states that for any coloring of the n-element subsets of N
with finitely many colors, there is an infinite set H such that all n-element
subsets of H have the same color. The strength of consequences of Ramsey's
theorem has been extensively studied in reverse mathematics and under various
reducibilities, namely, computable reducibility and uniform reducibility. Our
understanding of the combinatorics of Ramsey's theorem and its consequences has
been greatly improved over the past decades. In this paper, we state some
questions which naturally arose during this study. The inability to answer
those questions reveals some gaps in our understanding of the combinatorics of
Ramsey's theorem.Comment: 15 page
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