Recursive well-orderings

Abstract

Cantor's second ordinal number class is perhaps the simplest example of a set of mathematical objects which cannot all be named in one language. In this paper we shall investigate a system of names for a segment of the first and second number classes in relation to decision problems. The system, except for one minor difference, is the one studied by Markwald in [12]. In our system ordinals are named by natural numbers from a set W via recursive well-orderings of subsets of the natural numbers.The decision problems will be related to the hyperarithmetical hierarchy of Davis [2], [3] and Kleene [8]. This hierarchy is indexed by ordinal notations from Kleene's system S3 [4], [6], [9], in which ordinals are named by natural numbers from a set O, partially well-ordered ([12] p. 138) by a relation a≤Ob; O and ≤O are defined inductively by applications of the successor and limit operations. As results of this investigation, we shall (i) answer negatively Markwald's question [12] Theorem 12 whether his set “W” is arithmetical by showing that it is not even hyperarithmetical, (ii) obtain a new proof of the main result of Kleene [10] that every predicate expressible in both the one-function-quantifier forms of [8] is recursive in Hα for some aεO, (iii) answer affirmatively the question raised by Davis [2], [3] whether all the Church-Kleene constructive ordinals are uniqueness ordinals, and (iv) solve the function-quantifier analog of Post's problem [15]. Strong use will be made of the well-orderings that can be constructed from one-function-quantifier predicates as in [9].