In the mathematical discipline of set theory, 0# is the set of true formulae about indiscernibles and order-indiscernibles in the Gödel constructible universe. It is often encoded as a subset of the natural numbers, or as a subset of the hereditarily finite sets, or as a real number. Its existence is unprovable in ZFC, the standard form of axiomatic set theory, but follows from a suitable large cardinal axiom. It was first introduced as a set of formulae in Silver's 1966 thesis, later published as Silver (1971), where it was denoted by Σ, and rediscovered by Solovay, who considered it as a subset of the natural numbers and introduced the notation O#.
In mathematics, particularly in set theory, the aleph numbers are a sequence of numbers used to represent the cardinality of infinite sets that can be well-ordered. They were introduced by the mathematician Georg Cantor and are named after the symbol he used to denote them, the Hebrew letter aleph.
The von Neumann cardinal assignment is a cardinal assignment that uses ordinal numbers. For a well-orderable set U, we define its cardinal number to be the smallest ordinal number equinumerous to U, using the von Neumann definition of an ordinal number. More precisely:
Greek letters are used in mathematics, science, engineering, and other areas where mathematical notation is used as symbols for constants, special functions, and also conventionally for variables representing certain quantities. In these contexts, the capital letters and the small letters represent distinct and unrelated entities. Those Greek letters which have the same form as Latin letters are rarely used: capital A, B, E, Z, H, I, K, M, N, O, P, T, Y, X. Small ι, ο and υ are also rarely used, since they closely resemble the Latin letters i, o and u. Sometimes, font variants of Greek letters are used as distinct symbols in mathematics, in particular for ε/ϵ and π/ϖ. The archaic letter digamma (Ϝ/ϝ/ϛ) is sometimes used.
In model theory, a branch of mathematical logic, the spectrum of a theory is given by the number of isomorphism classes of models in various cardinalities. More precisely, for any complete theory T in a language we write I(T, κ) for the number of models of T (up to isomorphism) of cardinality κ. The spectrum problem is to describe the possible behaviors of I(T, κ) as a function of κ. It has been almost completely solved for the case of a countable theory T.
In mathematics, the epsilon numbers are a collection of transfinite numbers whose defining property is that they are fixed points of an exponential map. Consequently, they are not reachable from 0 via a finite series of applications of the chosen exponential map and of "weaker" operations like addition and multiplication. The original epsilon numbers were introduced by Georg Cantor in the context of ordinal arithmetic; they are the ordinal numbers ε that satisfy the equation
In the mathematical discipline of set theory, there are many ways of describing specific countable ordinals. The smallest ones can be usefully and non-circularly expressed in terms of their Cantor normal forms. Beyond that, many ordinals of relevance to proof theory still have computable ordinal notations. However, it is not possible to decide effectively whether a given putative ordinal notation is a notation or not ; various more-concrete ways of defining ordinals that definitely have notations are available.
In mathematical logic and set theory, an ordinal notation is a partial function mapping the set of all finite sequences of symbols, themselves members of a finite alphabet, to a countable set of ordinals. A Gödel numbering is a function mapping the set of well-formed formulae of some formal language to the natural numbers. This associates each well-formed formula with a unique natural number, called its Gödel number. If a Gödel numbering is fixed, then the subset relation on the ordinals induces an ordering on well-formed formulae which in turn induces a well-ordering on the subset of natural numbers. A recursive ordinal notation must satisfy the following two additional properties:
- the subset of natural numbers is a recursive set
- the induced well-ordering on the subset of natural numbers is a recursive relation
In proof theory, ordinal analysis assigns ordinals to mathematical theories as a measure of their strength. If theories have the same proof-theoretic ordinal they are often equiconsistent, and if one theory has a larger proof-theoretic ordinal than another it can often prove the consistency of the second theory.
In mathematics, the Feferman–Schütte ordinal Γ0 is a large countable ordinal. It is the proof-theoretic ordinal of several mathematical theories, such as arithmetical transfinite recursion. It is named after Solomon Feferman and Kurt Schütte, the former of whom suggested the name Γ0.
In mathematics, the small Veblen ordinal is a certain large countable ordinal, named after Oswald Veblen. It is occasionally called the Ackermann ordinal, though the Ackermann ordinal described by Ackermann (1951) is somewhat smaller than the small Veblen ordinal.
In mathematics, the large Veblen ordinal is a certain large countable ordinal, named after Oswald Veblen.
In mathematics, the Veblen functions are a hierarchy of normal functions, introduced by Oswald Veblen in Veblen (1908). If φ0 is any normal function, then for any non-zero ordinal α, φα is the function enumerating the common fixed points of φβ for β<α. These functions are all normal.
In mathematical logic and set theory, an ordinal collapsing function is a technique for defining certain recursive large countable ordinals, whose principle is to give names to certain ordinals much larger than the one being defined, perhaps even large cardinals, and then "collapse" them down to a system of notations for the sought-after ordinal. For this reason, ordinal collapsing functions are described as an impredicative manner of naming ordinals.
In computability theory, computational complexity theory and proof theory, a fast-growing hierarchy is an ordinal-indexed family of rapidly increasing functions fα: N → N. A primary example is the Wainer hierarchy, or Löb–Wainer hierarchy, which is an extension to all α < ε0. Such hierarchies provide a natural way to classify computable functions according to rate-of-growth and computational complexity.
In set theory, an ordinal number, or ordinal, is a generalization of ordinal numerals aimed to extend enumeration to infinite sets.
Buchholz's psi-functions are a hierarchy of single-argument ordinal functions introduced by German mathematician Wilfried Buchholz in 1986. These functions are a simplified version of the -functions, but nevertheless have the same strength as those. Later on this approach was extended by Jäger and Schütte.
In the mathematical fields of set theory and proof theory, the Takeuti–Feferman–Buchholz ordinal (TFBO) is a large countable ordinal, which acts as the limit of the range of Buchholz's psi function and Feferman's theta function. It was named by David Madore, after Gaisi Takeuti, Solomon Feferman and Wilfried Buchholz. It is written as using Buchholz's psi function, an ordinal collapsing function invented by Wilfried Buchholz, and in Feferman's theta function, an ordinal collapsing function invented by Solomon Feferman. It is the proof-theoretic ordinal of several formal theories:
In mathematics, Rathjen's psi function is an ordinal collapsing function developed by Michael Rathjen. It collapses weakly Mahlo cardinals to generate large countable ordinals. A weakly Mahlo cardinal is a cardinal such that the set of regular cardinals below is closed under . Rathjen uses this to diagonalise over the weakly inaccessible hierarchy.
In set theory, a mathematical discipline, a fundamental sequence is a cofinal sequence of ordinals all below a given limit ordinal. Depending on author, fundamental sequences may be restricted to ω-sequences only or permit fundamental sequences of length . The nth element of the fundamental sequence of is commonly denoted , although it may be denoted or . Additionally, some authors may allow fundamental sequences to be defined on successor ordinals. The term dates back to Veblen's construction of normal functions , while the concept dates back to Hardy's 1904 attempt to construct a set of cardinality .
