Uncountable master codes and the jump hierarchy

Abstract

The Turing jump can easily be iterated any finite number of times. The challenge is posed by by transfinite iterations. a(ω) has an intuitively compelling definition: {‹m, n›: n ∈ a(m)}. Starting with Putnam et al. [1], [2], [9] and culminating in Jockusch-Simpson [8] and Hodes [6], recent work has justified this ω-jump and extended it through .Of great use are the master codes of Jensen [3], [7]. Briefly, a Δn(Lβ)-master code is a complete Δn(Lβ) set of ordinals, with supremum as small as possible. Connections with classical recursion theory are tight. When the Δn(Lβ) master codes are reals, they are Turing equivalent. If a is a Δn(Lβ) MC, then a′ is a Δn + 1(Lβ) MC. Intuitively satisfying transfinite jumps, such as the ω-jump above, produce a Turing jump hierarchy equal to an initial segment of the master codes.Hodes capitalized on these facts by defining 0α, α < , set-theoretically as the degree of the αth MC which is a real, and then proving the equivalence of a jump-theoretic definition of 0α. The successor codes are jumps of their predecessors, and for a limit λ, 0λ is the minimum of a set of degrees associated with {0α: α: < λ}.