Proofs and Computations

Written by acknowledged experts, for advanced students and researchers in mathematical logic and computer science, this volume provides a detailed, self-contained coverage of proof theory in both classical and constructive arithmetics, up to finitely iterated inductive definitions. Deep connections with computability, complexity and program extraction form the principal themes.

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Driven by the question, 'What is the computational content of a (formal) proof?', this book studies fundamental interactions between proof theory and computability. It provides a unique self-contained text for advanced students and researchers in mathematical logic and computer science. Part I covers basic proof theory, computability and Gödel's theorems. Part II studies and classifies provable recursion in classical systems, from fragments of Peano arithmetic up to Π11–CA0. Ordinal analysis and the (Schwichtenberg–Wainer) subrecursive hierarchies play a central role and are used in proving the 'modified finite Ramsey' and 'extended Kruskal' independence results for PA and Π11–CA0. Part III develops the theoretical underpinnings of the first author's proof assistant MINLOG. Three chapters cover higher-type computability via information systems, a constructive theory TCF of computable functionals, realizability, Dialectica interpretation, computationally significant quantifiers and connectives and polytime complexity in a two-sorted, higher-type arithmetic with linear logic.