We discuss the complexity of completions of partial combinatory algebras, in particular, of Kleene’s first model. Various completions of this model exist in the literature, but all of them have high complexity. We show that although there are no computable completions, there exist completions of low Turing degree. We use this construction to relate completions of Kleene’s first model to complete extensions of $\mathrm{PA}$. We also discuss the complexity of pcas defined from nonstandard models of $\mathrm{PA}$.

We call an $\alpha \in \mathbb {R}$ regainingly approximable if there exists a computable nondecreasing sequence $(a_n)_n$ of rational numbers converging to $\alpha $ with $\alpha - a_n < 2^{-n}$ for infinitely many ${n \in \mathbb {N}}$. We also call a set $A\subseteq \mathbb {N}$ regainingly approximable if it is c.e. and the strongly left-computable number $2^{-A}$ is regainingly approximable. We show that the set of regainingly approximable sets is neither closed under union nor intersection and that every c.e. Turing degree contains such a set. Furthermore, the regainingly approximable numbers lie properly between the computable and the left-computable numbers and are not closed under addition. While regainingly approximable numbers are easily seen to be i.o. K-trivial, we construct such an $\alpha $ such that ${K(\alpha \restriction n)>n}$ for infinitely many n. Similarly, there exist regainingly approximable sets whose initial segment complexity infinitely often reaches the maximum possible for c.e. sets. Finally, there is a uniform algorithm splitting regular real numbers into two regainingly approximable numbers that are still regular.

Strong Turing Determinacy, or ${\mathrm {sTD}}$, is the statement that for every set A of reals, if $\forall x\exists y\geq _T x (y\in A)$, then there is a pointed set $P\subseteq A$. We prove the following consequences of Turing Determinacy (${\mathrm {TD}}$) and ${\mathrm {sTD}}$ over ${\mathrm {ZF}}$—the Zermelo–Fraenkel axiomatic set theory without the Axiom of Choice:

1. (1) ${\mathrm {ZF}}+{\mathrm {TD}}$ implies $\mathrm {wDC}_{\mathbb {R}}$—a weaker version of $\mathrm {DC}_{\mathbb {R}}$.

2. (2) ${\mathrm {ZF}}+{\mathrm {sTD}}$ implies that every set of reals is measurable and has Baire property.

3. (3) ${\mathrm {ZF}}+{\mathrm {sTD}}$ implies that every uncountable set of reals has a perfect subset.

4. (4) ${\mathrm {ZF}}+{\mathrm {sTD}}$ implies that for every set of reals A and every $\epsilon>0$:

   1. (a) There is a closed set $F\subseteq A$ such that $\mathrm {Dim_H}(F)\geq \mathrm {Dim_H}(A)-\epsilon $, where $\mathrm {Dim_H}$ is the Hausdorff dimension.

   2. (b) There is a closed set $F\subseteq A$ such that $\mathrm {Dim_P}(F)\geq \mathrm {Dim_P}(A)-\epsilon $, where $\mathrm {Dim_P}$ is the packing dimension.

There is a Turing functional $\Phi $ taking $A^\prime $ to a theory $T_A$ whose complexity is exactly that of the jump of A, and which has the property that $A \leq _T B$ if and only if $T_A \trianglelefteq T_B$ in Keisler’s order. In fact, by more elaborate means and related theories, we may keep the complexity at the level of A without using the jump.

Given a finite lattice L that can be embedded in the recursively enumerable (r.e.) Turing degrees $\langle \mathcal {R}_{\mathrm {T}},\leq _{\mathrm {T}}\rangle $ , we do not in general know how to characterize the degrees $\mathbf {d}\in \mathcal {R}_{\mathrm {T}}$ below which L can be bounded. The important characterizations known are of the $L_7$ and $M_3$ lattices, where the lattices are bounded below $\mathbf {d}$ if and only if $\mathbf {d}$ contains sets of “fickleness” $>\omega $ and $\geq \omega ^\omega $ respectively. We work towards finding a lattice that characterizes the levels above $\omega ^2$ , the first non-trivial level after $\omega $ . We introduced a lattice-theoretic property called “ $3$ -directness” to describe lattices that are no “wider” or “taller” than $L_7$ and $M_3$ . We exhaust the 3-direct lattices L, but they turn out to also characterize the $>\omega $ or $\geq \omega ^\omega $ levels, if L is not already embeddable below all non-zero r.e. degrees. We also considered upper semilattices (USLs) by removing the bottom meet(s) of some 3-direct lattices, but the removals did not change the levels characterized. This leads us to conjecture that a USL characterizes the same r.e. degrees as the lattice on which the USL is based. We discovered three 3-direct lattices besides $M_3$ that also characterize the $\geq \omega ^\omega $ -levels. Our search for a $>\omega ^2$ -candidate therefore involves the lattice-theoretic problem of finding lattices that do not contain any of the four $\geq \omega ^\omega $ -lattices as sublattices.

Abstract prepared by Liling Ko.

E-mail: [email protected]

URL: http://sites.nd.edu/liling-ko/

Martin’s conjecture is an attempt to classify the behavior of all definable functions on the Turing degrees under strong set theoretic hypotheses. Very roughly it says that every such function is either eventually constant, eventually equal to the identity function or eventually equal to a transfinite iterate of the Turing jump. It is typically divided into two parts: the first part states that every function is either eventually constant or eventually above the identity function and the second part states that every function which is above the identity is eventually equal to a transfinite iterate of the jump. If true, it would provide an explanation for the unique role of the Turing jump in computability theory and rule out many types of constructions on the Turing degrees.

In this thesis, we will introduce a few tools which we use to prove several cases of Martin’s conjecture. It turns out that both these tools and these results on Martin’s conjecture have some interesting consequences both for Martin’s conjecture and for a few related topics.

The main tool that we introduce is a basis theorem for perfect sets, improving a theorem due to Groszek and Slaman. We also introduce a general framework for proving certain special cases of Martin’s conjecture which unifies a few pre-existing proofs. We will use these tools to prove three main results about Martin’s conjecture: that it holds for regressive functions on the hyperarithmetic degrees (answering a question of Slaman and Steel), that part 1 holds for order preserving functions on the Turing degrees, and that part 1 holds for a class of functions that we introduce, called measure preserving functions.

This last result has several interesting consequences for the study of Martin’s conjecture. In particular, it shows that part 1 of Martin’s conjecture is equivalent to a statement about the Rudin-Keisler order on ultrafilters on the Turing degrees. This suggests several possible strategies for working on part 1 of Martin’s conjecture, which we will discuss.

The basis theorem that we use to prove these results also has some applications outside of Martin’s conjecture. We will use it to prove a few theorems related to Sacks’ question about whether it is provable in $\mathsf {ZFC}$ that every locally countable partial order of size continuum embeds into the Turing degrees. We will show that in a certain extension of $\mathsf {ZF}$ (which is incompatible with $\mathsf {ZFC}$ ), this holds for all partial orders of height two, but not for all partial orders of height three. Our proof also yields an analogous result for Borel partial orders and Borel embeddings in $\mathsf {ZF}$ , which shows that the Borel version of Sacks’ question has a negative answer.

We will end the thesis with a list of open questions related to Martin’s conjecture, which we hope will stimulate further research.

Abstract prepared by Patrick Lutz.

E-mail: [email protected]

A set $G \subseteq \omega$ is n-generic for a positive integer n if and only if every ${\rm{\Sigma }}_n^0$ formula of G is decided by a finite initial segment of G in the sense of Cohen forcing. It is shown here that every n-generic set G is properly ${\rm{\Sigma }}_n^0$ in some G-recursive X. As a corollary, we also prove that for every $n > 1$ and every n-generic set G there exists a G-recursive X which is generalized ${\rm{lo}}{{\rm{w}}_n}$ but not generalized ${\rm{lo}}{{\rm{w}}_{n - 1}}$. Thus we confirm two conjectures of Jockusch [4].

In a previous article, the author introduced the idea of intrinsic density—a restriction of asymptotic density to sets whose density is invariant under computable permutation. We prove that sets with well-defined intrinsic density (and particularly intrinsic density 0) exist only in Turing degrees that are either high (${\bf{a}}\prime { \ge _{\rm{T}}}\emptyset \prime \prime$) or compute a diagonally noncomputable function. By contrast, a classic construction of an immune set in every noncomputable degree actually yields a set with intrinsic lower density 0 in every noncomputable degree.

We also show that the former result holds in the sense of reverse mathematics, in that (over RCA0) the existence of a dominating or diagonally noncomputable function is equivalent to the existence of a set with intrinsic density 0.

Is there a nontrivial automorphism of the Turing degrees? It is a major open problem of computability theory. Past results have limited how nontrivial automorphisms could possibly be. Here we consider instead how an automorphism might be induced by a function on reals, or even by a function on integers. We show that a permutation of ω cannot induce any nontrivial automorphism of the Turing degrees of members of 2ω, and in fact any permutation that induces the trivial automorphism must be computable.

A main idea of the proof is to consider the members of 2ω to be probabilities, and use statistics: from random outcomes from a distribution we can compute that distribution, but not much more.

We study Turing degrees a for which there is a countable structure ${\cal A}$ whose degree spectrum is the collection {x : x ≰ a}. In particular, for degrees a from the interval [0′, 0″], such a structure exists if a′ = 0″, and there are no such structures if a″ > 0‴.

The K-trivial sets form an ideal in the Turing degrees, which is generated by its computably enumerable (c.e.) members and has an exact pair below the degree of the halting problem. The question of whether it has an exact pair in the c.e. degrees was first raised in [22, Question 4.2] and later in [25, Problem 5.5.8].

We give a negative answer to this question. In fact, we show the following stronger statement in the c.e. degrees. There exists a K-trivial degree d such that for all degrees a, b which are not K-trivial and a > d, b > d there exists a degree v which is not K-trivial and a > v, b > v. This work sheds light to the question of the definability of the K-trivial degrees in the c.e. degrees.

If X0 and X1 are both generic, the theories of the degrees below X0 and X1 are the same. The same is true if both are random. We show that the n-genericity or n-randomness of X do not suffice to guarantee that the degrees below X have these common theories. We also show that these two theories (for generics and randoms) are different. These results answer questions of Jockusch as well as Barmpalias, Day and Lewis.

A set of natural numbers B is computably enumerable in and strictly above (or c.e.a. for short) another set C if C <TB and B is computably enumerable in C. A Turing degree b is c.e.a. c if b and c respectively contain B and C as above. In this paper, it is shown that if b is c.e.a. c then b is c.e.a. some 1-generic g.

We prove a number of results in effective randomness, using methods in which Π1 0 classes play an essential role. The results proved include the fact that every PA Turing degree is the join of two random Turing degrees, and the existence of a minimal pair of LR degrees below the LR degree of the halting problem.

In Reverse Mathematics, the axiom system DNR. asserting the existence of diagonally non-recursive functions, is strictly weaker than WWKL0 (weak weak König's Lemma).