English

Generalized Decidability via Brouwer Trees

Logic in Computer Science 2026-05-14 v2 Logic

Abstract

In the setting of constructive mathematics, we suggest and study a framework for decidability of properties, which allows for finer distinctions than just "decidable, semidecidable, or undecidable". We work in homotopy type theory and use Brouwer ordinals to specify the level of decidability of a property. In this framework, we express the property that a proposition is α\alpha-decidable, for a Brouwer ordinal α\alpha, and show that it generalizes decidability and semidecidability. Further generalizing known results, we show that α\alpha-decidable propositions are closed under binary conjunction, and discuss for which α\alpha they are closed under binary disjunction. We prove that if each P(i)P(i) is semidecidable, then the countable meet iN.P(i)\forall i\in \mathbb N. P(i) is ω2\omega^2-decidable, and similar results for countable joins and iterated quantifiers. We also discuss the relationship with countable choice. All our results are formalized in Cubical Agda.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2602.10844,
  title  = {Generalized Decidability via Brouwer Trees},
  author = {Tom de Jong and Nicolai Kraus and Aref Mohammadzadeh and Fredrik Nordvall Forsberg},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.10844},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

To appear at LICS 2026

R2 v1 2026-07-01T10:31:52.388Z