Reverse Mathematics of Divisibility in Integral Domains

<p>This thesis establishes new results concerning the proof-theoretic strength of two classic theorems of Ring Theory relating to factorization in integral domains. The first theorem asserts that if every irreducible is a prime, then every element has at most one decomposition into irreducibles; the second states that well-foundedness of divisibility implies the existence of an irreducible factorization for each element. After introductions to the Algebra framework used and Reverse Mathematics, we show that the first theorem is provable in the base system of Second Order Arithmetic RCA0, while the other is equivalent over RCA0 to the system ACA0.</p>

Reverse Mathematics of Divisibility in Integral Domains

<p>This thesis establishes new results concerning the proof-theoretic strength of two classic theorems of Ring Theory relating to factorization in integral domains. The first theorem asserts that if every irreducible is a prime, then every element has at most one decomposition into irreducibles; the second states that well-foundedness of divisibility implies the existence of an irreducible factorization for each element. After introductions to the Algebra framework used and Reverse Mathematics, we show that the first theorem is provable in the base system of Second Order Arithmetic RCA0, while the other is equivalent over RCA0 to the system ACA0.</p>

Countable sets versus sets that are countable in reverse mathematics

The program Reverse Mathematics (RM for short) seeks to identify the axioms necessary to prove theorems of ordinary mathematics, usually working in the language of second-order arithmetic L 2 . A major theme in RM is therefore the study of structures that are countable or can be approximated by countable sets. Now, countable sets must be represented by sequences here, because the higher-order definition of ‘countable set’ involving injections/bijections to N cannot be directly expressed in L 2 . Working in Kohlenbach’s higher-order RM, we investigate various central theorems, e.g. those due to König, Ramsey, Bolzano, Weierstrass, and Borel, in their (often original) formulation involving the definition of ‘countable set’ based on injections/bijections to N. This study turns out to be closely related to the logical properties of the uncountably of R, recently developed by the author and Dag Normann. Now, ‘being countable’ can be expressed by the existence of an injection to N (Kunen) or the existence of a bijection to N (Hrbacek–Jech). The former (and not the latter) choice yields ‘explosive’ theorems, i.e. relatively weak statements that become much stronger when combined with discontinuous functionals, even up to Π 2 1 - CA 0 . Nonetheless, replacing ‘sequence’ by ‘countable set’ seriously reduces the first-order strength of these theorems, whatever the notion of ‘set’ used. Finally, we obtain ‘splittings’ involving e.g. lemmas by König and theorems from the RM zoo, showing that the latter are ‘a lot more tame’ when formulated with countable sets.

Short note: Least fixed points versus least closed points

This short note is on the question whether the intersection of all fixed points of a positive arithmetic operator and the intersection of all its closed points can proved to be equivalent in a weak fragment of second order arithmetic.

RANDOMNESS NOTIONS AND REVERSE MATHEMATICS

We investigate the strength of a randomness notion ${\cal R}$ as a set-existence principle in second-order arithmetic: for each Z there is an X that is ${\cal R}$-random relative to Z. We show that the equivalence between 2-randomness and being infinitely often C-incompressible is provable in $RC{A_0}$. We verify that $RC{A_0}$ proves the basic implications among randomness notions: 2-random $\Rightarrow$ weakly 2-random $\Rightarrow$ Martin-Löf random $\Rightarrow$ computably random $\Rightarrow$ Schnorr random. Also, over $RC{A_0}$ the existence of computable randoms is equivalent to the existence of Schnorr randoms. We show that the existence of balanced randoms is equivalent to the existence of Martin-Löf randoms, and we describe a sense in which this result is nearly optimal.

On the mathematical and foundational significance of the uncountable

We study the logical and computational properties of basic theorems of uncountable mathematics, including the Cousin and Lindelöf lemma published in 1895 and 1903. Historically, these lemmas were among the first formulations of open-cover compactness and the Lindelöf property, respectively. These notions are of great conceptual importance: the former is commonly viewed as a way of treating uncountable sets like e.g. [Formula: see text] as “almost finite”, while the latter allows one to treat uncountable sets like e.g. [Formula: see text] as “almost countable”. This reduction of the uncountable to the finite/countable turns out to have a considerable logical and computational cost: we show that the aforementioned lemmas, and many related theorems, are extremely hard to prove, while the associated sub-covers are extremely hard to compute. Indeed, in terms of the standard scale (based on comprehension axioms), a proof of these lemmas requires at least the full extent of second-order arithmetic, a system originating from Hilbert–Bernays’ Grundlagen der Mathematik. This observation has far-reaching implications for the Grundlagen’s spiritual successor, the program of Reverse Mathematics, and the associated Gödel hierarchy. We also show that the Cousin lemma is essential for the development of the gauge integral, a generalization of the Lebesgue and improper Riemann integrals that also uniquely provides a direct formalization of Feynman’s path integral.

A model of second-order arithmetic satisfying AC but not DC

We show that there is a [Formula: see text]-model of second-order arithmetic in which the choice scheme holds, but the dependent choice scheme fails for a [Formula: see text]-assertion, confirming a conjecture of Stephen Simpson. We obtain as a corollary that the Reflection Principle, stating that every formula reflects to a transitive set, can fail in models of [Formula: see text]. This work is a rediscovery by the first two authors of a result obtained by the third author in [V. G. Kanovei, On descriptive forms of the countable axiom of choice, Investigations on nonclassical logics and set theory, Work Collect., Moscow, 3-136 (1979)].