Hostname: page-component-74656f9884-8rzl6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-05T17:29:28.126Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

FINDING DESCENDING SEQUENCES THROUGH ILL-FOUNDED LINEAR ORDERS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2021

JUN LE GOH
Affiliation:
DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN MADISON, WI, USA E-mail: junle.goh@wisc.edu
ARNO PAULY
Affiliation:
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE UNIVERSITY OF SWANSEA SWANSEA, UK E-mail: arno.m.pauly@gmail.com
MANLIO VALENTI
Affiliation:
DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS, COMPUTER SCIENCE AND PHYSICS UNIVERSITY OF UDINE UDINE, ITALY E-mail: manliovalenti@gmail.com
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this work we investigate the Weihrauch degree of the problem Decreasing Sequence ($\mathsf {DS}$) of finding an infinite descending sequence through a given ill-founded linear order, which is shared by the problem Bad Sequence ($\mathsf {BS}$) of finding a bad sequence through a given non-well quasi-order. We show that $\mathsf {DS}$, despite being hard to solve (it has computable inputs with no hyperarithmetic solution), is rather weak in terms of uniform computational strength. To make the latter precise, we introduce the notion of the deterministic part of a Weihrauch degree. We then generalize $\mathsf {DS}$ and $\mathsf {BS}$ by considering $\boldsymbol {\Gamma }$-presented orders, where $\boldsymbol {\Gamma }$ is a Borel pointclass or $\boldsymbol {\Delta }^1_1$, $\boldsymbol {\Sigma }^1_1$, $\boldsymbol {\Pi }^1_1$. We study the obtained $\mathsf {DS}$-hierarchy and $\mathsf {BS}$-hierarchy of problems in comparison with the (effective) Baire hierarchy and show that they do not collapse at any finite level.

Information

Type
Article
Copyright
© The Association for Symbolic Logic 2021
Figure 0

Figure 1 An overview of some parts of the Weihrauch lattice. The solid frame collects the degrees belonging to the lower cone of $\mathsf {DS}$, while the dashed frame collects principles that are not Weihrauch reducible to $\mathsf {DS}$. The only principle shown which is above $\mathsf {DS}$ is $\mathsf {C}_{{\mathbb {N}^{\mathbb {N}}}}$. We do not know whether $ \mathsf {KL} $ is reducible to $\mathsf {DS}$.

Figure 1

Figure 2 Diagram presenting the relations between the various generalizations of $\mathsf {DS}$.