arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Paul Shafer.
We prove that several versions of the Tietze extension theorem for functions with moduli of uniform continuity are equivalent to WKL_0 over RCA_0. This confirms a conjecture of Giusto and Simpson that was also phrased as a question in Montalbán's "Open questions in reverse mathematics."
A quasi-order $Q$ induces two natural quasi-orders on $P(Q)$, but if $Q$ is a well-quasi-order, then these quasi-orders need not necessarily be well-quasi-orders. Nevertheless, Goubault-Larrecq showed that moving from a well-quasi-order $Q$ to the quasi-orders on $P(Q)$ preserves well-quasi-orderedness in a topological sense. Specifically, Goubault-Larrecq proved that the upper topologies of the induced quasi-orders on $P(Q)$ are Noetherian, which means that they contain no infinite strictly descending sequences of closed sets. We analyze various theorems of the form "if $Q$ is a well-quasi-order then a certain topology on (a subset of) $P(Q)$ is Noetherian" in the style of reverse mathematics, proving that these theorems are equivalent to ACA_0 over RCA_0. To state these theorems in RCA_0 we introduce a new framework for dealing with second-countable topological spaces.
The enterprise of comparing mathematical theorems according to their logical strength is an active area in mathematical logic. In this setting, called reverse mathematics, one investigates which theorems provably imply which others in a weak formal theory roughly corresponding to computable mathematics. Since the proofs of such implications take place in classical logic, they may in principle involve appeals to multiple applications of a particular theorem, or to non-uniform decisions about how to proceed in a given construction. In practice, however, if a theorem $\mathsf{Q}$ implies a theorem $\mathsf{P}$, it is usually because there is a direct uniform translation of the problems represented by $\mathsf{P}$ into the problems represented by $\mathsf{Q}$, in a precise sense. We study this notion of uniform reducibility in the context of several natural combinatorial problems, and compare and contrast it with the traditional notion of implication in reverse mathematics. We show, for instance, that for all $n,j,k \geq 1$, if $j < k$ then Ramsey's theorem for $n$-tuples and $k$ many colors does not uniformly reduce to Ramsey's theorem for $j$ many colors. The two theorems are classically equivalent, so our analysis gives a genuinely finer metric by which to gauge the relative strength of mathematical propositions. We also study Weak König's Lemma, the Thin Set Theorem, and the Rainbow Ramsey's Theorem, along with a number of their variants investigated in the literature. Uniform reducibility turns out to be connected with sequential forms of mathematical principles, where one wishes to solve infinitely many instances of a particular problem simultaneously. We exploit this connection to uncover new points of difference between combinatorial problems previously thought to be more closely related.
We prove that the statement "there is a $k$ such that for every $f$ there is a $k$-bounded diagonally non-recursive function relative to $f$" does not imply weak König's lemma over $\mathrm{RCA}_0 + \mathrm{B}Σ^0_2$. This answers a question posed by Simpson. A recursion-theoretic consequence is that the classic fact that every $k$-bounded diagonally non-recursive function computes a $2$-bounded diagonally non-recursive function may fail in the absence of $\mathrm{I}Σ^0_2$.
A Martin-Löf test $\mathcal U$ is universal if it captures all non-Martin-Löf random sequences, and it is optimal if for every ML-test $\mathcal V$ there is a $c \in ω$ such that $\forall n(\mathcal{V}_{n+c} \subseteq \mathcal{U}_n)$. We study the computational differences between universal and optimal ML-tests as well as the effects that these differences have on both the notion of layerwise computability and the Weihrauch degree of LAY, the function that produces a bound for a given Martin-Löf random sequence's randomness deficiency. We prove several robustness and idempotence results concerning the Weihrauch degree of LAY, and we show that layerwise computability is more restrictive than Weihrauch reducibility to LAY. Along similar lines we also study the principle RD, a variant of LAY outputting the precise randomness deficiency of sequences instead of only an upper bound as LAY.
A semi-measure is a generalization of a probability measure obtained by relaxing the additivity requirement to super-additivity. We introduce and study several randomness notions for left-c.e. semi-measures, a natural class of effectively approximable semi-measures induced by Turing functionals. Among the randomness notions we consider, the generalization of weak 2-randomness to left-c.e. semi-measures is the most compelling, as it best reflects Martin-Löf randomness with respect to a computable measure. Additionally, we analyze a question of Shen, a positive answer to which would also have yielded a reasonable randomness notion for left-c.e. semi-measures. Unfortunately though, we find a negative answer, except for some special cases.
This paper analyzes theorems about algebraic field extensions using the techniques of reverse mathematics. In section 2, we show that $\mathsf{WKL}_0$ is equivalent to the ability to extend $F$-automorphisms of field extensions to automorphisms of $\bar{F}$, the algebraic closure of $F$. Section 3 explores finitary conditions for embeddability. Normal and Galois extensions are discussed in section 4, and the Galois correspondence theorems for infinite field extensions are treated in section 5.