Related papers: The Ouroboros Goodstein Principle
The original Goodstein process is based on writing numbers in hereditary $b$-exponential normal form: that is, each number $n$ is written in some base $b\geq 2$ as $n=b^ea+r$, with $e$ and $r$ iteratively being written in hereditary…
The classical Goodstein process, defined via hereditary base-$k$ exponential normal form, is a well-known example of a principle unprovable in Peano Arithmetic. In this paper, we generalize this framework by constructing a new Goodstein…
Goodstein's principle is arguably the first purely number-theoretic statement known to be independent of Peano arithmetic. It involves sequences of natural numbers which at first appear to grow very quickly, but eventually decrease to zero.…
Goodstein sequences are numerical sequences in which a natural number m, expressed as the complete normal form to a given base a, is modified by increasing the value of the base a by one unit and subtracting one unit from the resulting…
The original Goodstein process proceeds by writing natural numbers in nested exponential $k$-normal form, then successively raising the base to $k+1$ and subtracting one from the end result. Such sequences always reach zero, but this fact…
Inspired by Gentzen's 1936 consistency proof, Goodstein found a close fit between descending sequences of ordinals epsilon_0 and sequences of integers, now known as Goodstein sequences. This article revisits Goodstein's 1944 paper. In light…
In the late 1980s, Abrusci, Girard and van de Wiele defined a variant of Goodstein sequences: the so-called inverse Goodstein sequence. In their work, they show that it terminates precisely at the Bachmann-Howard ordinal. This reveals that…
Cantor's ordinal numbers, a powerful extension of the natural numbers, are a cornerstone of set theory. They can be used to reason about the termination of processes, prove the consistency of logical systems, and justify some of the core…
Goodstein's argument is essentially that the hereditary representation m_{[b]} of any given natural number m in the natural number base b can be mirrored in Cantor Arithmetic, and used to well-define a finite decreasing sequence of…
The classical Goodstein process gives rise to long but finite sequences of natural numbers whose termination is not provable in Peano arithmetic. In this manuscript we consider a variant based on the Ackermann function. We show that…
We generalize Goodstein's theorem (Goodstein 1944) and Cichon's independence proof (Cichon 1983) to $\Pi^1_1-\mathrm{CA}_0$ using results from (Wilken 2026). The method is generalizable to stronger notation systems that provide unique terms…
In the course of many mathematical developments involving 'number systems' like $\mathbb{N}, \mathbb{Z}, \mathbb{Q}, \mathbb{R}, \mathbb {C}$ etc., it sometimes becomes necessary to abstract away and study certain properties of the number…
By combining classical results of B\"uchi, some elementary Tauberian theorems and some basic tools from logic and combinatorics we show that every ordinal $\alpha$ with $\varepsilon_0\geq \alpha\geq \omega^\omega$ satisfies a natural…
We introduce an information order on experiments based on weighted garbling, a generalization of the standard notion of garbling. In this order, an experiment is more informative than another if the latter is a weighted garbling of the…
Building on Buchholz' assignment for ordinals below Bachmann-Howard ordinal, see Buchholz 2003, we introduce systems of fundamental sequences for two kinds of relativized $\vartheta$-function-based notation systems of strength…
Beklemishev introduced an ordinal notation system for the Feferman-Sch\"utte ordinal $\Gamma_0$ based on the autonomous expansion of provability algebras. In this paper we present the logic $\textbf{BC}$ (for Bracket Calculus). The language…
How much dependence is there in the prime factorization of a random integer distributed uniformly from 1 to n? How much dependence is there in the decomposition into cycles of a random permutation of n points? What is the relation between…
We present variants of Goodstein's theorem that are equivalent to arithmetical comprehension and to arithmetical transfinite recursion, respectively, over a weak base theory. These variants differ from the usual Goodstein theorem in that…
Let $F$ be the set of functions from an infinite set, $S$, to an ordered ring, $R$. For $f$, $g$, and $h$ in $F$, the assertion $f = g + O(h)$ means that for some constant $C$, $|f(x) - g(x)| \leq C |h(x)|$ for every $x$ in $S$. Let $L$ be…
We consider the constructive ordinal notation system for the ordinal ${\epsilon_0}$ that were introduced by L.D. Beklemishev. There are fragments of this system that are ordinal notation systems for the smaller ordinals ${\omega_n}$ (towers…