transfinite recursion


Transfinite recursion, roughly speaking, is a statement about the ability to define a function recursively using transfinite inductionMathworldPlanetmath. In its most general and intuitive form, it says

Theorem 1.

Let G be a (class) function on V, the class of all sets. Then there exists a unique (class) function F on On, the class of ordinalsMathworldPlanetmathPlanetmath, such that

F(α)=G(F|α)

where F|α is the function whose domain is seg(α):={ββ<α} and whose values coincide with F on every βseg(α). In other words, F|α is the restrictionPlanetmathPlanetmathPlanetmath of F to α.

Notice that the theorem above is not provable in ZF set theoryMathworldPlanetmath, as G and F are both classes, not sets. In order to prove this statement, one way of getting around this difficulty is to convert both G and F into formulasMathworldPlanetmathPlanetmath, and modify the statement, as follows:

Let φ(x,y) be a formula such that

xyz(φ(x,z)z=y).

Think of G={(x,y)φ(x,y)}. Then there is a unique formula ψ(α,z) (think of F as {(α,z)ψ(α,z)}) such that the following two sentencesMathworldPlanetmath are derivablePlanetmathPlanetmath using ZF axioms:

  1. 1.

    xyz(𝐎𝐧(x)(ψ(x,z)z=y)), where 𝐎𝐧(x) means “x is an ordinal”,

  2. 2.

    xy(𝐎𝐧(x)(ψ(x,y)f(ABCD))), where

    • A is the formula “f is a function”,

    • B is the formula “dom(f)=x”,

    • C is the formula z(zxφ(f|z,f(z))), and

    • D is the formula φ(f,y).

A stronger form of the transfinite recursion theorem says:

Theorem 2.

Let φ(x,y) be any formula (in the languagePlanetmathPlanetmath of set theory). Then the following is a theorem: assume that φ satisfies property that, for every x, there is a unique y such that φ(x,y). If A be a well-ordered set (well-ordered by ), then there is a unique function f defined on A such that

φ(f|seg(s),f(s))

for every sA. Here, seg(s):={tAt<s}, the initial segment of s in A.

The above theorem is actually a collectionMathworldPlanetmath of theorems, or known as a theorem schema, where each theorem corresponds to a formula. The other difference between this and the previous theorem is that this theorem is provable in ZF, because the domain of the function f is now a set.

Title transfinite recursion
Canonical name TransfiniteRecursion
Date of creation 2013-03-22 17:53:51
Last modified on 2013-03-22 17:53:51
Owner CWoo (3771)
Last modified by CWoo (3771)
Numerical id 12
Author CWoo (3771)
Entry type Theorem
Classification msc 03E45
Classification msc 03E10
Related topic WellFoundedRecursion
Related topic TransfiniteInduction