STUDENT MATHEMATICAL LIBRARY

Volume 62

Computability
Theory

Rebecca Weber

American Mathematical Society

Providence, Rhode Island
Contents

Chapter 1. Introduction 1
§1.1. Approach 1
§1.2. Some History 4
§1.3. Notes on Use of the Text 6
§1.4. Acknowledgements and References 7

Chapter 2. Background 9
§2.1. First-Order Logic 9
§2.2. Sets 15
§2.3. Relations 21
§2.4. Bijection and Isomorphism 29
§2.5. Recursion and Induction 30
§2.6. Some Notes on Proofs and Abstraction 37

Chapter 3. Defining Computability 41

§3.1. Functions, Sets, and Sequences 41
§3.2: Turing Machines 43
§3.3. Partial Recursive Functions 50
§3.4. Coding and Countability 56
§3.5. A Universal Turing Machine 62

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§3.6. The Church-Turing Thesis 65

§3.7. Other Definitions of Computability 66

Chapter 4. Working with Computable Functions 77

§4.1. The Halting Problem 77
§4.2. The "Three Contradictions" 78
§4.3. Parametrization 79
§4.4. The Recursion Theorem 81
§4.5. Unsolvability 85

Chapter 5. Computing and Enumerating Sets 95

§5.1. Dovetailing 95
§5.2. Computing and Enumerating 96
§5.3. Aside: Enumeration and Incompleteness 102
§5.4. Enumerating Noncomputable Sets 105

Chapter 6. Turing Reduction and Post's Problem 109

§6.1. Reducibility of Sets 109
§6.2. Finite Injury Priority Arguments 115
§6.3. Notes on Approximation 124

Chapter 7. Two Hierarchies of Sets 127

§7.1. Turing Degrees and Relativization 127
§7.2. The Arithmetical Hierarchy 131
§7.3. Index Sets and Arithmetical Completeness 135

Chapter 8. Further Tools and Results 139

§8.1. The Limit Lemma 139
§8.2. The Arslanov Completeness Criterion 142
§8.3. £ Modulo Finite Difference 145

Chapter 9. Areas of Research 149

§9.1. Computably Enumerable Sets and Degrees 149
§9.2. Randomness 155
§9.3. Some Model Theory 169
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§9.4. Computable Model Theory 174

§9.5. Reverse Mathematics 177

Appendix A. Mathematical Asides 189

§A.l. The Greek Alphabet 189
§A.2. Summations 190
§A.3. Cantor's Cardinality Proofs 190

Bibliography 193

Index 199