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Main Authors: Nivasch, Gabriel, Shiboli, Lior
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.17210
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author Nivasch, Gabriel
Shiboli, Lior
author_facet Nivasch, Gabriel
Shiboli, Lior
contents We determine sufficient conditions under which certain recursively defined functions are well defined for all real inputs. Given a function $f:\mathbb R\to\mathbb R$, call a decreasing sequence $x_1>x_2>x_3>\cdots$ "$f$-bad" if $f(x_1)>f(x_2)>f(x_3)>\cdots$, and call the function $f$ "ordinal decreasing" if there exist no infinite $f$-bad sequences. We prove the following result: Given ordinal decreasing functions $f,g_1,\ldots,g_k,s$ that are everywhere larger than $0$, define the recursive algorithm "$M(x)$: if $x<0$ return $f(x)$, else return $g_1(-M(x-g_2(-M(x-\cdots-g_k(-M(x-s(x)))\cdots))))$". Then $M(x)$ halts and is ordinal decreasing for all $x \in \mathbb{R}$. The recursive algorithms $M$ and $M_n$ previously studied in the context of fusible numbers by Ericskon et al. (2022) and Bufetov et al. (2024), respectively, are special cases of this scheme. Moreover, given an ordinal decreasing function $f$, denote by $o(f)$ the ordinal height of the root of the tree of $f$-bad sequences. Then we prove that, for $k\ge 2$, the function $M(x)$ defined by the above algorithm satisfies $o(M)\leφ_{k-1}(γ+o(s)+1)$, where $γ$ is the smallest ordinal such that $\max\{o(s),o(f),o(g_1), \ldots, o(g_k)\} <φ_{k-1}(γ)$.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2311_17210
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Ordinals and recursively defined functions on the reals
Nivasch, Gabriel
Shiboli, Lior
Logic
Discrete Mathematics
68R01, 03D60
We determine sufficient conditions under which certain recursively defined functions are well defined for all real inputs. Given a function $f:\mathbb R\to\mathbb R$, call a decreasing sequence $x_1>x_2>x_3>\cdots$ "$f$-bad" if $f(x_1)>f(x_2)>f(x_3)>\cdots$, and call the function $f$ "ordinal decreasing" if there exist no infinite $f$-bad sequences. We prove the following result: Given ordinal decreasing functions $f,g_1,\ldots,g_k,s$ that are everywhere larger than $0$, define the recursive algorithm "$M(x)$: if $x<0$ return $f(x)$, else return $g_1(-M(x-g_2(-M(x-\cdots-g_k(-M(x-s(x)))\cdots))))$". Then $M(x)$ halts and is ordinal decreasing for all $x \in \mathbb{R}$. The recursive algorithms $M$ and $M_n$ previously studied in the context of fusible numbers by Ericskon et al. (2022) and Bufetov et al. (2024), respectively, are special cases of this scheme. Moreover, given an ordinal decreasing function $f$, denote by $o(f)$ the ordinal height of the root of the tree of $f$-bad sequences. Then we prove that, for $k\ge 2$, the function $M(x)$ defined by the above algorithm satisfies $o(M)\leφ_{k-1}(γ+o(s)+1)$, where $γ$ is the smallest ordinal such that $\max\{o(s),o(f),o(g_1), \ldots, o(g_k)\} <φ_{k-1}(γ)$.
title Ordinals and recursively defined functions on the reals
topic Logic
Discrete Mathematics
68R01, 03D60
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.17210