In this paper we discuss subsystems of number theory based on restrictions on induction in terms of quantifiers, and we show that all the natural formulations of ‘n-quantifier induction’ are reducible to one of two (for n ≠ 0) nonequivalent normal forms: the axiom of induction restricted to
(or, equivalently,
) formulae and the rule of induction restricted to
formulae.
Let Z0 be classical elementary number theory with a symbol and defining equations for each Kalmar elementary function, and the rule of induction
![](//static.cambridge.org/content/id/urn%3Acambridge.org%3Aid%3Aarticle%3AS0022481200079007/resource/name/S0022481200079007_eqnU1.gif?pub-status=live)
restricted to quantifier-free formulae. Given the schema
![](//static.cambridge.org/content/id/urn%3Acambridge.org%3Aid%3Aarticle%3AS0022481200079007/resource/name/S0022481200079007_eqnU2.gif?pub-status=live)
let IAn be the restriction of IA to formulae of Z0 with ≤n nested quantifiers, IAn′ to formulae with ≤n nested quantifiers, disregarding bounded quantifiers,
the restriction to
formulae,
the restriction to
, formulae. IRn, IRn′,
,
are analogous.
Then, we show that, for every n,
,
, IAn, and IAn′, are all equivalent modulo Z0. The corresponding statement does not hold for IR. We show that, if n ≠ 0,
is reducible to
; evidently IRn is reducible to
. On the other hand, IRn′ is obviously equivalent to IAn′ [10, Lemma 2].