English

Reverse mathematics, well-quasi-orders, and Noetherian spaces

Logic 2018-01-30 v2

Abstract

A quasi-order QQ induces two natural quasi-orders on P(Q)P(Q), but if QQ is a well-quasi-order, then these quasi-orders need not necessarily be well-quasi-orders. Nevertheless, Goubault-Larrecq showed that moving from a well-quasi-order QQ to the quasi-orders on P(Q)P(Q) preserves well-quasi-orderedness in a topological sense. Specifically, Goubault-Larrecq proved that the upper topologies of the induced quasi-orders on P(Q)P(Q) are Noetherian, which means that they contain no infinite strictly descending sequences of closed sets. We analyze various theorems of the form "if QQ is a well-quasi-order then a certain topology on (a subset of) P(Q)P(Q) is Noetherian" in the style of reverse mathematics, proving that these theorems are equivalent to ACA_0 over RCA_0. To state these theorems in RCA_0 we introduce a new framework for dealing with second-countable topological spaces.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1504.07452,
  title  = {Reverse mathematics, well-quasi-orders, and Noetherian spaces},
  author = {Emanuele Frittaion and Matt Hendtlass and Alberto Marcone and Paul Shafer and Jeroen Van der Meeren},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1504.07452},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

minor changes suggested by referees, added table

R2 v1 2026-06-22T09:24:10.635Z