We study the logical and computational properties of basic theorems of uncountable mathematics, including the Cousin and Lindelöf lemma published in 1895 and 1903. Historically, these lemmas were among the first formulations of open-cover compactness and the Lindelöf property, respectively. These notions are of great conceptual importance: the former is commonly viewed as a way of treating uncountable sets like e.g. [Formula: see text] as “almost finite”, while the latter allows one to treat uncountable sets like e.g. [Formula: see text] as “almost countable”. This reduction of the uncountable to the finite/countable turns out to have a considerable logical and computational cost: we show that the aforementioned lemmas, and many related theorems, are extremely hard to prove, while the associated sub-covers are extremely hard to compute. Indeed, in terms of the standard scale (based on comprehension axioms), a proof of these lemmas requires at least the full extent of second-order arithmetic, a system originating from Hilbert–Bernays’ Grundlagen der Mathematik. This observation has far-reaching implications for the Grundlagen’s spiritual successor, the program of Reverse Mathematics, and the associated Gödel hierarchy. We also show that the Cousin lemma is essential for the development of the gauge integral, a generalization of the Lebesgue and improper Riemann integrals that also uniquely provides a direct formalization of Feynman’s path integral.
In this paper, we highlight a new computational aspect of Nonstandard Analysis relating to higher-order computability theory. In particular, we prove that the Gandy-Hyland functional equals a primitive recursive functional involving nonstandard numbers inside Nelson's internal set theory. From this classical and ineffective proof in Nonstandard Analysis, a term from Gödel's system T can be extracted which computes the Gandy-Hyland functional in terms of a modulus-of-continuity functional and a special case of the fan functional. We obtain several similar relative computability results not involving Nonstandard Analysis from their associated nonstandard theorems. By way of reversal, we show that certain relative computability results, called Herbrandisations, also imply the nonstandard theorem from whence they were obtained. Thus, we establish a direct two-way connection between the field Computability (in particular theoretical computer science) and the field Nonstandard Analysis.
Abstract. Elementary Recursive Nonstandard Analysis, in short ERNA, is a constructive system of nonstandard analysis proposed around 1995 by Patrick Suppes and Richard Sommer, who also proved its consistency inside PRA. It is based on an earlier system developed by Rolando Chuaqui and Patrick Suppes, of which Michal Rössler and Emil Jeřábek have recently proposed a weakened version. We add a Π 1 -transfer principle to ERNA and prove the consistency of the extended theory inside PRA. In this extension of ERNA a Σ 1
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