Question

I was reading Turing's paper on computable numbers and the Entscheidungsproblem. There is this part of Section 9, Part II that I cannot quite seem to understand. He says:

Excerpt from Turing's "On Computable Numbers with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem" where he defines a formula U that defines the sequence alpha generated by the function G(x), where x is a non-negative integer

It is pretty straight forward until the part where he introduces $\mathfrak{U}$. So $\mathfrak{U}$, he says, includes the Peano axioms; but what else does it include? I guess it includes the axioms for $G(x)$ as well, because only then would $\mathfrak{U}$ be able to "define" the sequence $\alpha$ that is being computed by $G(x)$. I am taking the word "define" here in its usual sense, but Turing explains what he means by "$\mathfrak{U}$ defining $\alpha$" as:

Excerpt from Turing's "On Computable Numbers with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem" where he explained what he means by the formula U defining the sequence alpha

So for $\mathfrak{U}$ to define $\alpha$, $-\mathfrak{U}$ must not be provable? I am not sure why that is required? Because by restricting that $-\mathfrak{U}$ must not be provable we are saying that $\mathfrak{U}$ must not be refutable, which means that the sequence $\alpha$ cannot be all 0's (or so I think). But why would we want $\alpha$ to not be all 0's?

I am also confused about the two formulas ($A_n$ and $B_n$) he has written above. I am not sure why if has included the $F^{(n)}$ part. If $x$ satisfies the Peano axioms and the axioms of $G(x)$, then $U$ being a conjection of all these axioms is given to be TRUE, and if $x$ does not satisfy these axioms then $\mathfrak{U}$ is obviously FALSE. So, just based on $\mathfrak{U}$ we can tell whether $A_n$ is TRUE or $B_n$. So what is the point of $F^{(n)}$ here? I think the following set of implications say pretty much the same thing as what Turing has?

Another, possibly incorrect, formulation of the above implications

Sorry if I am overlooking something here.

Edit 1:

Here are the footnotes:

The footnotes refereed to in the excerpts attached above

Was it helpful?

Solution

The transliteration of the passage into modern langauge would go as follows.

We extend the language of first-order Peano arithmetic with a unary predicate $G$ (and no axioms for $G$). For a number $n \in \mathbb{N}$, let $\overline{n}$ be the numeral $$\underbrace{S(S(\cdots S}_{n}(0)))$$ where $S$ is the successor symbol. For example, $\overline{3} = S(S(S(0))$.

Consider a formula $\mathfrak{U}(x)$ written in this language, whose only free variable is $x$ such that, for every $n \in \mathbb{N}$:

  1. Peano axioms prove $\mathfrak{U}(\overline{n}) \Rightarrow G(\overline{n})$, or
  2. Peano axioms prove $\mathfrak{U}(\overline{n}) \Rightarrow \lnot G(\overline{n})$.
  3. Peano axioms do not prove $\lnot \mathfrak{U}(\overline{n})$.

Define $\alpha : \mathbb{N} \to \{0,1\}$ by $$\alpha(n) = \begin{cases} 1 & \text{if Peano axioms prove $\mathfrak{U}(\overline{n}) \Rightarrow G(\overline{n})$},\\ 0 & \text{if Peano axioms prove $\mathfrak{U}(\overline{n}) \Rightarrow \lnot G(\overline{n})$.} \end{cases} $$ We say that $\mathfrak{U}$ defines the sequence $\alpha$.

Intuitively, we think of $G(x)$ as stating "the $x$-th digit of $\alpha$ is $1$", and of $\lnot G(x)$ as stating "the $x$-th digits of $\alpha$ is $0$".

The first and second condition on $\mathfrak{U}$ ensure that $\mathfrak{U}$ always assigns $\alpha(n)$ the value $0$ or the value $1$.

The third condition ensures that $\mathfrak{U}$ never assigns both $0$ and $1$ to $\alpha(n)$ (because it follows from the first two conditions that $\lnot \mathfrak{U}(\overline{n})$ is equiprovable with $G(\overline{n}) \land \lnot G(\overline{n})$).

Example: The formula $G(x)$ defines the sequence $1, 1, 1, 1, 1, \ldots$.

Example: The formula $G(S(x))$ does not define a sequence because $G(S(0)))$ does not imply $G(0)$ and it does not imply $\lnot G(0)$. (Remember that $G$ is a primitive symbol and that we have no axioms about it.)

Example: The formula $G(0) \land \forall x \,.\, \lnot G(S(x))$ defines the sequence $1, 0, 0, 0, 0, \ldots$

Example: The formula $x \neq 0 \land \Rightarrow G(x)$ does not define the sequence because Peano axioms prove $\lnot (0 \neq 0 \land G(0)$, thus the third condition is violated. If we tried to use this formula to define a sequence, it would assign $0$ and $1$ to $\alpha(0)$ (and it would assign $1$ to all other terms of $\alpha$).

Example: The formula $G(0) \land \lnot G(S(0)) \land \forall x . G(S(S(x)))$ defines the sequence $1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, \ldots$

Example: The formula $$((\exists y . x = 2 \cdot y) \Rightarrow G(x)) \land ((\exists y . x = S(2 \cdot y)) \Rightarrow \lnot G(x)) $$ defines the sequence $0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, \ldots$

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