In set theory and logic, Buchholz's ID hierarchy is a hierarchy of subsystems of first-order arithmetic. The systems/theories
are referred to as "the formal theories of ν-times iterated inductive definitions". IDν extends PA by ν iterated least fixed points of monotone operators.
Definition[edit]
Original definition[edit]
The formal theory IDω (and IDν in general) is an extension of Peano Arithmetic, formulated in the language LID, by the following axioms:[1]

for every LID-formula F(x)

The theory IDν with ν ≠ ω is defined as:

for every LID-formula F(x) and each u < ν

Explanation / alternate definition[edit]
A set
is called inductively defined if for some monotonic operator
,
, where
denotes the least fixed point of
. The language of ID1,
, is obtained from that of first-order number theory,
, by the addition of a set (or predicate) constant IA for every X-positive formula A(X, x) in LN[X] that only contains X (a new set variable) and x (a number variable) as free variables. The term X-positive means that X only occurs positively in A (X is never on the left of an implication). We allow ourselves a bit of set-theoretic notation:

means 
- For two formulas
and
,
means
.
Then ID1 contains the axioms of first-order number theory (PA) with the induction scheme extended to the new language as well as these axioms:


Where
ranges over all
formulas.
Note that
expresses that
is closed under the arithmetically definable set operator
, while
expresses that
is the least such (at least among sets definable in
).
Thus,
is meant to be the least pre-fixed-point, and hence the least fixed point of the operator
.
To define the system of ν-times iterated inductive definitions, where ν is an ordinal, let
be a primitive recursive well-ordering of order type ν. We use Greek letters to denote elements of the field of
. The language of IDν,
is obtained from
by the addition of a binary predicate constant JA for every X-positive
formula
that contains at most the shown free variables, where X is again a unary (set) variable, and Y is a fresh binary predicate variable. We write
instead of
, thinking of x as a distinguished variable in the latter formula.
The system IDν is now obtained from the system of first-order number theory (PA) by expanding the induction scheme to the new language and adding the scheme
expressing transfinite induction along
for an arbitrary
formula
as well as the axioms:


where
is an arbitrary
formula. In
and
we used the abbreviation
for the formula
, where
is the distinguished variable. We see that these express that each
, for
, is the least fixed point (among definable sets) for the operator
. Note how all the previous sets
, for
, are used as parameters.
We then define
.
Variants[edit]
-
is a weakened version of
. In the system of
, a set
is instead called inductively defined if for some monotonic operator
,
is a fixed point of
, rather than the least fixed point. This subtle difference makes the system significantly weaker:
, while
.
is
weakened even further. In
, not only does it use fixed points rather than least fixed points, and has induction only for positive formulas. This once again subtle difference makes the system even weaker:
, while
.
is the weakest of all variants of
, based on W-types. The amount of weakening compared to regular iterated inductive definitions is identical to removing bar induction given a certain subsystem of second-order arithmetic.
, while
.
is an "unfolding" strengthening of
. It is not exactly a first-order arithmetic system, but captures what one can get by predicative reasoning based on ν-times iterated generalized inductive definitions. The amount of increase in strength is identical to the increase from
to
:
, while
.
Results[edit]
- Let ν > 0. If a ∈ T0 contains no symbol Dμ with ν < μ, then "a ∈ W0" is provable in IDν.
- IDω is contained in
.
- If a
-sentence
is provable in IDν, then there exists
such that
.
- If the sentence A is provable in IDν for all ν < ω, then there exists k ∈ N such that
.
Proof-theoretic ordinals[edit]
- The proof-theoretic ordinal of ID<ν is equal to
.
- The proof-theoretic ordinal of IDν is equal to
.
- The proof-theoretic ordinal of
is equal to
.
- The proof-theoretic ordinal of
for
is equal to
.
- The proof-theoretic ordinal of
is equal to
.
- The proof-theoretic ordinal of
for
is equal to
.
- The proof-theoretic ordinal of
for
is equal to
.
- The proof-theoretic ordinal of
is equal to
.
- The proof-theoretic ordinal of
is equal to
.
- The proof-theoretic ordinal of
is equal to
.
- The proof-theoretic ordinal of
is equal to
.
- The proof-theoretic ordinal of
is equal to
.
- The proof-theoretic ordinal of
is equal to
.
- The proof-theoretic ordinal of ID1 (the Bachmann-Howard ordinal) is also the proof-theoretic ordinal of
,
,
and
.
- The proof-theoretic ordinal of W-IDω (
) is also the proof-theoretic ordinal of
.
- The proof-theoretic ordinal of IDω (the Takeuti-Feferman-Buchholz ordinal) is also the proof-theoretic ordinal of
,
and
.
- The proof-theoretic ordinal of ID<ω^ω (
) is also the proof-theoretic ordinal of
.
- The proof-theoretic ordinal of ID<ε0 (
) is also the proof-theoretic ordinal of
and
.
References[edit]
- ^ W. Buchholz, "An Independence Result for
", Annals of Pure and Applied Logic vol. 33 (1987).