Syntactical truth predicates for second order arithmetic

This paper describes axiomatic theories SA and SAR, which are versions of second order arithmetic with countably many sorts for sets of natural numbers. The theories are intended to be applied in reverse mathematics because their multi-sorted language allows to express some mathematical statements in more natural form than in the standard second order arithmetic. We study metamathematical properties of the theories SA, SAR and their fragments. We show that SA is mutually interpretable with the theory of arithmetical truth PATr obtained from the Peano arithmetic by adding infinitely many truth predicates. Corresponding fragments of SA and PATr are also mutually interpretable. We compare the proof-theoretical strengths of the fragments; in particular, we show that each fragment SAs with sorts <=s is weaker than next fragment SAs+1.

In this paper we examine the relationship between automorphisms of models of I∆0 (bounded arithmetic) and strong systems of arithmetic, such as PA, ACA0 (arithmetical comprehension schema with restricted induction), and Z2 (second order arithmetic). For example, we establish the following characterization of PA by proving a “reversal” of a theorem of Gaifman: Theorem. The following are equivalent for completions T of I∆0 : (a) T ` PA; (b) Some model M = (M, · · ·) of T has a proper end extension N which satisfies I∆0 and for some automorphism j of N, M is precisely the fixed point set of j. Our results also shed light on the metamathematics of the Quine-Jensen system NFU of set theory with a universal set.

This paper is a contribution to the project of determining which set existence axioms are needed to prove various theorems of analysis. For more on this project and its history we refer the reader to [1] and [2].We work in a weak subsystem of second order arithmetic. The language of second order arithmetic includes the symbols 0, 1, =, <, +, ·, and ∈, together with number variables x, y, z, … (which are intended to stand for natural numbers), set variables X, Y, Z, … (which are intended to stand for sets of natural numbers), and the usual quantifiers (which can be applied to both kinds of variables) and logical connectives. We write ∀x < t φ and ∃x < t φ as abbreviations for ∀x(x < t → φ) and ∃x{x < t ∧ φ) respectively; these are called bounded quantifiers. A formula is said to be if it has no quantifiers applied to set variables, and all quantifiers applied to number variables are bounded. It is if it has the form ∃xθ and it is if it has the form ∀xθ, where in both cases θ is .The theory RCA0 has as axioms the usual Peano axioms, with the induction scheme restricted to formulas, and in addition the comprehension scheme, which consists of all formulas of the formwhere φ is , ψ is , and X does not occur free in φ(n). (“RCA” stands for “Recursive Comprehension Axiom.” The reason for the name is that the comprehension scheme is only strong enough to prove the existence of recursive sets.) It is known that this theory is strong enough to allow the development of many of the basic properties of the real numbers, but that certain theorems of elementary analysis are not provable in this theory. Most relevant for our purposes is the fact that it is impossible to prove in RCA0 that every continuous function on the closed interval [0, 1] attains maximum and minimum values (see [1]).Since the most common proof of the Mean Value Theorem makes use of this theorem, it might be thought that the Mean Value Theorem would also not be provable in RCA0. However, we show in this paper that the Mean Value Theorem can be proven in RCA0. All theorems stated in this paper are theorems of RCA0, and all of our reasoning will take place in RCA0.

We investigate the provability or nonprovability of certain ordinary mathematical theorems within certain weak subsystems of second order arithmetic. Specifically, we consider the Cauchy/Peano existence theorem for solutions of ordinary differential equations, in the context of the formal system RCA0whose principal axioms arecomprehension andinduction. Our main result is that, over RCA0, the Cauchy/Peano Theorem is provably equivalent to weak König's lemma, i.e. the statement that every infinite {0, 1}-tree has a path. We also show that, over RCA0, the Ascoli lemma is provably equivalent to arithmetical comprehension, as is Osgood's theorem on the existence of maximum solutions. At the end of the paper we digress to relate our results to degrees of unsolvability and to computable analysis.