Related papers: The logical strength of minimal bad arrays
We prove that Higman's lemma is strictly stronger for better quasi orders than for well quasi orders, within the framework of reverse mathematics. In fact, we show a stronger result: the infinite Ramsey theorem (for tuples of all lengths)…
We show that Nash-Williams' theorem asserting that the countable transfinite sequences of elements of a better-quasi-ordering ordered by embeddability form a better-quasi-ordering is provable in the subsystem of second order arithmetic…
The purpose of this article is to study the role of G\"odel's functional interpretation in the extraction of programs from proofs in well quasi-order theory. The main focus is on the interpretation of Nash-Williams' famous minimal bad…
It has recently been shown that fairly strong axiom systems such as $\mathsf{ACA}_0$ cannot prove that the antichain with three elements is a better quasi order ($\mathsf{bqo}$). In the present paper, we give a complete characterization of…
The notion of better quasi order ($\mathsf{BQO}$), due to Nash-Williams, is very fruitful mathematically and intriguing from the standpoint of logic, due to several long-standing open problems. In the present paper, we make a significant…
The minimal bad sequence argument due to Nash-Williams is a powerful tool in combinatorics with important implications for theoretical computer science. In particular, it yields a very elegant proof of Kruskal's theorem. At the same time,…
The well-quasi-orders (WQO) play an important role in various fields such as Computer Science, Logic or Graph Theory. Since the class of WQOs lacks closure under some important operations, the proof that a certain quasi-order is WQO…
The (extensional) theory of arrays is widely used to model systems. Hence, efficient decision procedures are needed to model check such systems. Current decision procedures for the theory of arrays saturate the read-over-write and…
By reformulating a learning process of a set system L as a game between Teacher (presenter of data) and Learner (updater of the abstract independent set), we define the order type dim L of L to be the order type of the game tree. The theory…
The notion of well order admits an alternative definition in terms of embeddings between initial segments. We use the framework of reverse mathematics to investigate the logical strength of this definition and its connection with…
We use G\"odel's Dialectica interpretation to analyse Nash-Williams' elegant but non-constructive "minimal bad sequence" proof of Higman's Lemma. The result is a concise constructive proof of the lemma (for arbitrary decidable…
We present a relatively simple description of binary, definable subsets of models of weakly quasi-o-minimal theories. In particular, we closely describe definable linear orders and prove a weak version of the monotonicity theorem. We also…
The famous theorem of Higman states that for any well-quasi-order (wqo) $Q$ the embeddability order on finite sequences over $Q$ is also wqo. In his celebrated 1965 paper, Nash-Williams established that the same conclusion holds even for…
The aim of Reverse Mathematics(RM for short)is to find the minimal axioms needed to prove a given theorem of ordinary mathematics. These minimal axioms are almost always equivalent to the theorem, working over the base theory of RM, a weak…
A well-ordering principle is a principle of the form: If $X$ is well-ordered then $F(X)$ is well-ordered, where $F$ is some natural operator transforming linear orders into linear orders. Many important subsystems of Second-order Arithmetic…
Quasiminimal structures play an important role in non-elementary categoricity. In this paper we explore possibilities of constructing quasiminimal models of a given first-order theory. We present several constructions with increasing…
We introduce ordinal collapsing principles that are inspired by proof theory but have a set theoretic flavor. These principles are shown to be equivalent to iterated $\Pi^1_1$-comprehension and the existence of admissible sets, over weak…
Nash-Williams' Strong Immersion Conjecture states that graphs are well-quasi-ordered by the strong immersion relation. That is, given infinitely many graphs, one graph contains another graph as a strong immersion. In this paper we study the…
Reverse Mathematics (RM hereafter) is a program in the foundations of mathematics where the aim is to identify the minimal axioms needed to prove a given theorem from ordinary, i.e. non-set theoretic, mathematics. This program has unveiled…
A quasi-order is a binary, reflexive and transitive relation. In the Journal of Pure and Applied Algebra 45 (1987), S.M. Fakhruddin introduced the notion of (totally) quasi-ordered fields and showed that each such field is either an ordered…