Recursive isomorphism types of recursive Boolean algebras

Abstract

A Boolean algebra is recursive if B is a recursive subset of the natural numbers N and the operations ∧ (meet), ∨ (join), and ¬ (complement) are partial recursive. Given two Boolean algebras and , we write if is isomorphic to and if is recursively isomorphic to , that is, if there is a partial recursive function f: B1 → B2 which is an isomorphism from to . will denote the set of atoms of and () will denote the ideal generated by the atoms of .One of the main questions which motivated this paper is “To what extent does the classical isomorphism type of a recursive Boolean algebra restrict the possible recursion theoretic properties of ?” For example, it is easy to see that must be co-r.e. (i.e., N − is an r.e. set), but can be immune, not immune, cohesive, etc? It follows from a result of Goncharov [4] that there exist classical isomorphism types which contain recursive Boolean algebras but do not contain any recursive Boolean algebras such that is recursive. Thus the classical isomorphism can restrict the possible Turing degrees of , but what is the extent of this restriction? Another main question is “What is the recursion theoretic relationship between and () in a recursive Boolean algebra?” In our attempt to answer these questions, we were led to a wide variety of recursive isomorphism types which are contained in the classical isomorphism type of any recursive Boolean algebra with an infinite set of atoms.