English

Prime Factorization in Models of PV$_1$

Logic 2026-04-15 v5 Logic in Computer Science

Abstract

Assuming that no family of polynomial-size Boolean circuits can factorize a constant fraction of all products of two nn-bit primes, we show that the bounded arithmetic theory PV1\text{PV}_1, even when augmented by the sharply bounded choice scheme BB(Σ0b)BB(\Sigma^b_0), cannot prove that every number has some prime divisor. By the completeness theorem, it follows that under this assumption there is a model MM of PV1\text{PV}_1 that contains a nonstandard number mm which has no prime factorization.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2505.14516,
  title  = {Prime Factorization in Models of PV$_1$},
  author = {Ondřej Ježil},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.14516},
  year   = {2026}
}
R2 v1 2026-07-01T02:25:31.075Z