arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Ludovic Patey.
Many statements studied in reverse mathematics can be seen as mathematical problems, formulated in terms of instances and solutions. We develop a framework of typicality encompassing measure and genericity, and we classify the reverse mathematics zoo in terms of which problems admit typical solutions. It turns out that even very weak problems do not admit typical solutions.
Carlson and Simpson proved that for every finite coloring of the 1-variable words over a finite alphabet~$A$, there is an infinite $\omega$-variable word on which all the 1-variable words are monochromatic. This statement for $\ell$-colorings, written $\mathsf{CSL}^1_\ell$, is known to be strictly weaker than $\mathsf{ACA}_0$. We prove that $\mathsf{RCA}_0 + \mathsf{CSL}^1_2$ is a $\forall \Pi^0_4$-conservative extension of $\mathsf{RCA}_0 + \mathsf{B}Sigma_2$. Among its consequences, it implies that neither the indivisibility of the universal triangle-free Henson graph for 2-colorings, nor the tree theorem for pairs and two colors, imply $\Sigma^0_2$-induction. This answers a question of Chong, Li, Wang and Yang.
We prove that for every non-arithmetic set~$C$ and every arithmetic finite coloring of~$\mathbb{N}$, there is an infinite set $H \subseteq \mathbb{N}$ whose non-empty finite sums of distinct elements is monochromatic, and $C$ is not $H$-computable. We also study restrictions of Hindman's theorem to simple colorings.
In this article, we study the reverse mathematics of variable word theorems used in the proof of the Dual Ramsey theorem. We prove that the Ordered Variable Word theorem does not imply Ramsey's theorem for pairs and that every computable instance admits a solution of low${}_2$ degree. This is used to prove the Carlson-Simpson Lemma and the Open Dual Ramsey theorem over~$\mathsf{ACA}_0$, thereby answering some 40-years old open questions. These results have consequences in the reverse mathematics of structural Ramsey theory.
We study a restriction of Ramsey's theorem for 2-coloring of triples, in which homogeneous sets for color~1 are of bounded size ($\mathsf{BRT}^3_2$). We prove that the computational content of this statement is very close to Ramsey's theorem for pairs ($\mathsf{RT}^2_2)$, in that it satisfies the same known computability-theoretic upper bounds, but that $\mathsf{BRT}^3_2$ is not computably-reducible to $\mathsf{RT}^2_2$, even when allowing multiple applications of $\mathsf{RT}^2_2$.
Le Hou\'erou, Patey and Yokoyama defined a parameterized version of $\alpha$-largeness to prove that $\mathsf{WKL}_0 + \mathsf{RT}^2_2$ is a $\forall \Sigma^0_3$-conservative extension of $\mathsf{RCA}_0 + \mathsf{B}\Sigma^0_2$, where $\forall \Sigma^0_3$ is the universal set-closure of the class of $\Sigma^0_3$-formulas. We introduce a variant of this notion of largeness and obtain polynomial bounds, using a tree partition theorem based on Milliken's tree theorem. Thanks to the framework of forcing interpretation, this yields that any proof of a $\forall \Sigma^0_3$-sentence in the theory $\mathsf{WKL}_0 + \mathsf{RT}^2_2$ can be translated into a proof in $\mathsf{RCA}_0 + \mathsf{B}\Sigma^0_2$ at the cost of a polynomial increase in size.
We develop the framework of $\alpha$-largeness introduced by Ketonen and Solovay, by proving a partition theorem for $\alpha$-large sets with $\alpha < \epsilon_0$ which generalizes theorems from Ketonen and Solovay and from Bigorajska and Kotlarski. We also prove that for every $\omega^{nk+3}$-large set $X$ with $\min X \geq 18$, every coloring $f : [X]^2 \to k$ admits an $\omega^n$-large $f$-homogeneous subset. This bound is tight, up to an additive constant.
In this article, we study a degenerate version of Ramsey's theorem for pairs and two colors ($\mathsf{RT}^2_2$), in which the homogeneous sets for color 1 are of bounded size. By $\mathsf{RT}^2_2$, it follows that every such coloring admits an infinite homogeneous set for color 0. This statement, called $\mathsf{BRT}^2_2$, is known to be computably true, that is, every computable instance admits a computable solution, but the known proofs use $\Sigma^0_2$-induction ($\mathsf{I}\Sigma_2^0$). We prove that $\mathsf{BRT}^2_2$ follows from the Erd\H{o}s-Moser theorem but not from the Ascending Descending sequence principle, and that its computably true version is equivalent to $\mathsf{I}\Sigma_2^0$ over $\mathsf{RCA}_0$.
A Ramsey-like theorem is a statement of the form ``For every 2-coloring of $[\mathbb{N}]^2$, there exists an infinite set~$H \subseteq \mathbb{N}$ such that $[H]^2$ avoids some pattern''. We prove that none of these statements are computably trivial, by constructing a computable 2-coloring of $[\mathbb{N}]^2$ such that every infinite set avoiding any pattern computes a diagonally non-computable function relative to $\emptyset'$. We also consider multiple notions of weaknesses based of variants of immunity, and characterize the Ramsey-like theorems which preserve these notions or not, based on the shape of the avoided pattern. This is part of a larger study of the reverse mathematics of Ramsey-like theorems.
We conduct a computability-theoretic study of Ramsey-like theorems of the form "Every coloring of the edges of an infinite clique admits an infinite sub-clique avoiding some pattern", with a particular focus on transitive patterns. As it turns out, the patterns corresponding to separable permutations play an important role in the computational features of the statement. We prove that the avoidance of any separable permutation is equivalent to the existence of an infinite homogeneous set in standard models, while this property fails for any other pattern. For this, we develop a novel argument for relativized diagonal non-computation.
We study the reverse mathematics of infinitary extensions of the Hales-Jewett theorem, due to Carlson and Simpson. These theorems have multiple applications in Ramsey's theory, such as the existence of finite big Ramsey numbers for the triangle-free graph, or the Dual Ramsey theorem. We show in particular that the Open Dual Ramsey theorem holds in $\mathsf{ACA}^{+}_0$.
CAC for trees is the statement asserting that any infinite subtree of $\mathbb{N}^{<\mathbb{N}}$ has an infinite path or an infinite antichain. In this paper, we study the computational strength of this theorem from a reverse mathematical viewpoint. We prove that TAC for trees is robust, that is, there exist several characterizations, some of which already appear in the literature, namely, the tree antichain theorem (TCAC) introduced by Conidis, and the statement SHER introduced by Dorais et al. We show that CAC for trees is computationally very weak, in that it admits probabilistic solutions.
In this article, we give two proofs of Carlson's theorem for located words in~$\mathsf{ACA}^+_0$. The first proof is purely combinatorial, in the style of Towsner's proof of Hindman's theorem. The second uses topological dynamics to show that an iterated version of Hindman's theorem for bounded sums implies Carlson's theorem for located words.
There exist two notions of typicality in computability theory, namely, genericity and randomness. In this article, we introduce a new notion of genericity, called partition genericity, which is at the intersection of these two notions of typicality, and show that many basis theorems apply to partition genericity. More precisely, we prove that every co-hyperimmune set and every Kurtz random is partition generic, and that every partition generic set admits weak infinite subsets. In particular, we answer a question of Kjos-Hanssen and Liu by showing that every Kurtz random admits an infinite subset which does not compute any set of positive Hausdorff dimension. Partition genericty is a partition regular notion, so these results imply many existing pigeonhole basis theorems.
The thin set theorem for $n$-tuples and $k$ colors ($\mathsf{TS}^n_k$) states that every $k$-coloring of $[\mathbb{N}]^n$ admits an infinite set of integers $H$ such that $[H]^n$ avoids at least one color. In this paper, we study the combinatorial weakness of the thin set theorem in reverse mathematics by proving neither $\mathsf{TS}^n_k$, nor the free set theorem ($\mathsf{FS}^n$) imply the Erdős-Moser theorem ($\mathsf{EM}$) whenever $k$ is sufficiently large (answering a question of Patey and giving a partial result towards a question of Cholak Giusto, Hirst and Jockusch). Given a problem $\mathsf{P}$, a computable instance of $\mathsf{P}$ is universal iff its solution computes a solution of any other computable $\mathsf{P}$-instance. It has been established that most of Ramsey-type problems do not have a universal instance, but the case of Erdős-Moser theorem remained open so far. We prove that Erdős-Moser theorem does not admit a universal instance (answering a question of Patey).
Milliken's tree theorem is a deep result in combinatorics that generalizes a vast number of other results in the subject, most notably Ramsey's theorem and its many variants and consequences. Motivated by a question of Dobrinen, we initiate the study of Milliken's tree theorem from the point of view of computability theory. Our advance here stems from a careful analysis of the Halpern-Laüchli theorem which shows that it can be carried out effectively (i.e., that it is computably true). We use this as the basis of a new inductive proof of Milliken's tree theorem that permits us to gauge its effectivity in turn. The principal outcome of this is a comprehensive classification of the computable content of Milliken's tree theorem. We apply our analysis also to several well-known applications of Milliken's tree theorem, namely Devlin's theorem, a partition theorem for Rado graphs, and a generalized version of the so-called tree theorem of Chubb, Hirst, and McNicholl. These are all certain kinds of extensions of Ramsey's theorem for different structures, namely the rational numbers, the Rado graph, and perfect binary trees, respectively. We obtain a number of new results about how these principles relate to Milliken's tree theorem and to each other, in terms of both their computability-theoretic and combinatorial aspects. We identify again the familiar dichotomy between coding the halting problem or not based on the size of instance, but this is more subtle here owing to the more complicated underlying structures, particularly in the case of Devlin's theorem. We also establish new structural Ramsey-theoretic properties of the Rado graph theorem and the generalized Chubb-Hirst-McNicholl tree theorem using Zucker's notion of big Ramsey structure.
A set is introreducible if it can be computed by every infinite subset of itself. Such a set can be thought of as coding information very robustly. We investigate introreducible sets and related notions. Our two main results are that the collection of introreducible sets is $Π^1_1$-complete, so that there is no simple characterization of the introreducible sets; and that every introenumerable set has an introreducible subset.
The infinite pigeonhole principle for 2-partitions ($\mathsf{RT}^1_2$) asserts the existence, for every set $A$, of an infinite subset of $A$ or of its complement. In this paper, we study the infinite pigeonhole principle from a computability-theoretic viewpoint. We prove in particular that $\mathsf{RT}^1_2$ admits strong cone avoidance for arithmetical and hyperarithmetical reductions. We also prove the existence, for every $Δ^0_n$ set, of an infinite low${}_n$ subset of it or its complement. This answers a question of Wang. For this, we design a new notion of forcing which generalizes the first and second-jump control of Cholak, Jockusch and Slaman.