The present article introduces ptarithmetic (short for "polynomial time
arithmetic") -- a formal number theory similar to the well known Peano
arithmetic, but based on the recently born computability logic (see
http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~giorgi/cl.html) instead of classical logic. The
formulas of ptarithmetic represent interactive computational problems rather
than just true/false statements, and their "truth" is understood as existence
of a polynomial time solution. The system of ptarithmetic elaborated in this
article is shown to be sound and complete. Sound in the sense that every
theorem T of the system represents an interactive number-theoretic
computational problem with a polynomial time solution and, furthermore, such a
solution can be effectively extracted from a proof of T. And complete in the
sense that every interactive number-theoretic problem with a polynomial time
solution is represented by some theorem T of the system.
The paper is self-contained, and can be read without any previous familiarity
with computability logic.Comment: Substantially better versions are on their way. Hence the present
article probably will not be publishe
