English

Goedel logics: Prenex fragments

Logic in Computer Science 2024-07-25 v2

Abstract

In this paper, we provide a complete classification for the first-order Goedel logics concerning the property that the formulas admit logically equivalent prenex normal forms. We show that the only first-order Goedel logics that admit such prenex forms are those with finite truth value sets since they allow all quantifier-shift rules and the logic GG_\uparrow with only one accumulation point at 1 in the infinite truth value set. In all the other cases, there are generally no logically equivalent prenex normal forms. We will also see that GG_\uparrow is the intersection of all finite first-order Goedel logics. The second part of this paper investigates the existence of effective equivalence between the validity of a formula and the validity of some prenex normal form. The existence of such a normal form is obvious for finite valued Goedel logic and GG_\uparrow. Goedel logics with an uncountable truth value set admit the prenex normal forms if and only if every surrounding of 0 is uncountable or 0 is an isolated point. Otherwise, uncountable Goedel logics are not recursively enumerable, however, the prenex fragment is always recursively enumerable. Therefore, there is no effective translation between the valid formula and the valid prenex normal form. However, the existence of effectively constructible validity equivalent prenex forms for the countable case is still up for debate.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2407.16683,
  title  = {Goedel logics: Prenex fragments},
  author = {Matthias Baaz and Mariami Gamsakhurdia},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2407.16683},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

Research supported by FWF grant P 36571

R2 v1 2026-06-28T17:51:13.181Z