How strong is Ramsey's theorem if infinity can be weak?
Abstract
We study the first-order consequences of Ramsey's Theorem for -colourings of -tuples, for fixed , over the relatively weak second-order arithmetic theory . Using the Chong-Mourad coding lemma, we show that in a model of , is equivalent to its own relativization to any proper -definable cut, so its truth value remains unchanged in all extensions of the model with the same first-order universe. We give an axiomatization of the first-order consequences of for . We show that they form a non-finitely axiomatizable subtheory of PA whose fragment is and whose fragment for lies between and . We also consider the first-order consequences of . We show that they form a subtheory of whose fragment is and whose fragment is strictly weaker than but not contained in . Additionally, we consider a principle -, defined like but with both the -colourings and the solutions allowed to be -sets. We show that the behaviour of - over is similar to that of over , and that - is - but not -conservative over . However, the statement we use to witness lack of -conservativity is not provable in .
Cite
@article{arxiv.2011.02550,
title = {How strong is Ramsey's theorem if infinity can be weak?},
author = {Leszek Aleksander Kołodziejczyk and Katarzyna W. Kowalik and Keita Yokoyama},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2011.02550},
year = {2021}
}
Comments
20 pages. Appendix with proof of proof-theoretic lemma added. Minor editorial changes throughout the text