Fusible numbers and Peano Arithmetic

被引:1
|
作者
Erickson, Jeff [1 ]
Nivasch, Gabriel [2 ]
Xu, Junyan [3 ]
机构
[1] Univ Illinois, Chicago, IL 60680 USA
[2] Ariel Univ, Ariel, Israel
[3] NCI, Canc Data Sci Lab, CCR, NIH, Bethesda, MD USA
关键词
D O I
10.1109/LICS52264.2021.9470703
中图分类号
TP301 [理论、方法];
学科分类号
081202 ;
摘要
Inspired by a mathematical riddle involving fuses, we define the fusible numbers as follows: 0 is fusible, and whenever x; y are fusible with |y - x| < 1, the number (x + y + 1)/2 is also fusible. We prove that the set of fusible numbers, ordered by the usual order on R, is well-ordered, with order type epsilon(0). Furthermore, we prove that the density of the fusible numbers along the real line grows at an incredibly fast rate: Letting g(n) be the largest gap between consecutive fusible numbers in the interval [n,infinity), we have g(n)(-1) >= F epsilon(0) (n for some constant c, where F alpha denotes the fast-growing hierarchy. Finally, we derive some true statements that can be formulated but not proven in Peano Arithmetic, of a different flavor than previously known such statements: PA cannot prove the true statement "For every natural number n there exists a smallest fusible number larger than n." Also, consider the algorithm " M(x): if x < 0 return, else return M(x - M(x - 1))/2." Then M terminates on real inputs, although PA cannot prove the statement " M terminates on all natural inputs."
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页数:13
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