We show that there exists a recursive coloring function c such that any $\Pi ^0_3$ set is not a solution to c for Hindman’s theorem. We also show that there exists a recursive coloring function c such that any $\Delta ^0_3$ set is not a solution to c for Hindman’s theorem restricted to sums of at most three numbers.

We present the true stages machinery and illustrate its applications to descriptive set theory. We use this machinery to provide new proofs of the Hausdorff–Kuratowski and Wadge theorems on the structure of $\mathbf {\Delta }^0_\xi $, Louveau and Saint Raymond’s separation theorem, and Louveau’s separation theorem.

We investigate what it means for a (Hausdorff, second-countable) topological group to be computable. We compare several potential definitions based on classical notions in the literature. We relate these notions with the well-established definitions of effective presentability for discrete and profinite groups, and compare our results with similar results in computable topology.

${\mathsf {CAC\ for\ trees}}$ is the statement asserting that any infinite subtree of $\mathbb {N}^{<\mathbb {N}}$ has an infinite path or an infinite antichain. In this paper, we study the computational strength of this theorem from a reverse mathematical viewpoint. We prove that ${\mathsf {CAC\ for\ trees}}$ is robust, that is, there exist several characterizations, some of which already appear in the literature, namely, the statement $\mathsf {SHER}$ introduced by Dorais et al. [8], and the statement $\mathsf {TAC}+\mathsf {B}\Sigma ^0_2$ where $\mathsf {TAC}$ is the tree antichain theorem introduced by Conidis [6]. We show that ${\mathsf {CAC\ for\ trees}}$ is computationally very weak, in that it admits probabilistic solutions.

There exist two main notions of typicality in computability theory, namely, Cohen genericity and randomness. In this article, we introduce a new notion of genericity, called partition genericity, which is at the intersection of these two notions of typicality, and show that many basis theorems apply to partition genericity. More precisely, we prove that every co-hyperimmune set and every Kurtz random is partition generic, and that every partition generic set admits weak infinite subsets, for various notions of weakness. In particular, we answer a question of Kjos-Hanssen and Liu by showing that every Kurtz random admits an infinite subset which does not compute any set of positive effective Hausdorff dimension. Partition genericity is a partition regular notion, so these results imply many existing pigeonhole basis theorems.

Theorems of hyperarithmetic analysis (THAs) occupy an unusual neighborhood in the realms of reverse mathematics and recursion theoretic complexity. They lie above all the fixed (recursive) iterations of the Turing Jump but below ATR $_{0}$ (and so $\Pi _{1}^{1}$ -CA $_{0}$ or the hyperjump). There is a long history of proof theoretic principles which are THAs. Until Barnes, Goh, and Shore [ta] revealed an array of theorems in graph theory living in this neighborhood, there was only one mathematical denizen. In this paper we introduce a new neighborhood of theorems which are almost theorems of hyperarithmetic analysis (ATHAs). When combined with ACA $_{0}$ they are THAs but on their own they are very weak. We generalize several conservativity classes ( $\Pi _{1}^{1}$ , r- $\Pi _{2}^{1}$ , and Tanaka) and show that all our examples (and many others) are conservative over RCA $_{0}$ in all these senses and weak in other recursion theoretic ways as well. We provide denizens, both mathematical and logical. These results answer a question raised by Hirschfeldt and reported in Montalbán [2011] by providing a long list of pairs of principles one of which is very weak over RCA $_{0}$ but over ACA $_{0}$ is equivalent to the other which may be strong (THA) or very strong going up a standard hierarchy and at the end being stronger than full second order arithmetic.

We construct families of translationally invariant, nearest-neighbour Hamiltonians on a 2D square lattice of d-level quantum systems (d constant), for which determining whether the system is gapped or gapless is an undecidable problem. This is true even with the promise that each Hamiltonian is either gapped or gapless in the strongest sense: it is promised to either have continuous spectrum above the ground state in the thermodynamic limit, or its spectral gap is lower-bounded by a constant. Moreover, this constant can be taken equal to the operator norm of the local operator that generates the Hamiltonian (the local interaction strength). The result still holds true if one restricts to arbitrarily small quantum perturbations of classical Hamiltonians. The proof combines a robustness analysis of Robinson’s aperiodic tiling, together with tools from quantum information theory: the quantum phase estimation algorithm and the history state technique mapping Quantum Turing Machines to Hamiltonians.

Theorems of hyperarithmetic analysis (THAs) occupy an unusual neighborhood in the realms of reverse mathematics and recursion-theoretic complexity. They lie above all the fixed (recursive) iterations of the Turing jump but below ATR $_{0}$ (and so $\Pi _{1}^{1}$ -CA $_{0}$ or the hyperjump). There is a long history of proof-theoretic principles which are THAs. Until the papers reported on in this communication, there was only one mathematical example. Barnes, Goh, and Shore [1] analyze an array of ubiquity theorems in graph theory descended from Halin’s [9] work on rays in graphs. They seem to be typical applications of ACA $_{0}$ but are actually THAs. These results answer Question 30 of Montalbán’s Open Questions in Reverse Mathematics [19] and supply several other natural principles of different and unusual levels of complexity.

This work led in [25] to a new neighborhood of the reverse mathematical zoo: almost theorems of hyperarithmetic analysis (ATHAs). When combined with ACA $_{0}$ they are THAs but on their own are very weak. Denizens both mathematical and logical are provided. Generalizations of several conservativity classes ( $\Pi _{1}^{1}$ , r- $\Pi _{1}^{1}$ , and Tanaka) are defined and these ATHAs as well as many other principles are shown to be conservative over RCA $_{0}$ in all these senses and weak in other recursion-theoretic ways as well. These results answer a question raised by Hirschfeldt and reported in [19] by providing a long list of pairs of principles one of which is very weak over RCA $_{0}$ but over ACA $_{0}$ is equivalent to the other which may be strong (THA) or very strong going up a standard hierarchy and at the end being stronger than full second-order arithmetic.

The thin set theorem for n-tuples and k colors ( $\operatorname {\mathrm {\sf {TS}}}^n_k$ ) states that every k-coloring of $[\mathbb {N}]^n$ admits an infinite set of integers H such that $[H]^n$ avoids at least one color. In this paper, we study the combinatorial weakness of the thin set theorem in reverse mathematics by proving neither $\operatorname {\mathrm {\sf {TS}}}^n_k$ , nor the free set theorem ( $\operatorname {\mathrm {\sf {FS}}}^n$ ) imply the Erdős–Moser theorem ( $\operatorname {\mathrm {\sf {EM}}}$ ) whenever k is sufficiently large (answering a question of Patey and giving a partial result towards a question of Cholak Giusto, Hirst and Jockusch). Given a problem $\mathsf {P}$ , a computable instance of $\mathsf {P}$ is universal iff its solution computes a solution of any other computable $\mathsf {P}$ -instance. It has been established that most of Ramsey-type problems do not have a universal instance, but the case of Erdős–Moser theorem remained open so far. We prove that Erdős–Moser theorem does not admit a universal instance (answering a question of Patey).

We prove a number of elementary facts about computability in partial combinatory algebras (pca’s). We disprove a suggestion made by Kreisel about using Friedberg numberings to construct extensional pca’s. We then discuss separability and elements without total extensions. We relate this to Ershov’s notion of precompleteness, and we show that precomplete numberings are not 1–1 in general.

Ramsey’s theorem asserts that every k-coloring of $[\omega ]^n$ admits an infinite monochromatic set. Whenever $n \geq 3$ , there exists a computable k-coloring of $[\omega ]^n$ whose solutions compute the halting set. On the other hand, for every computable k-coloring of $[\omega ]^2$ and every noncomputable set C, there is an infinite monochromatic set H such that $C \not \leq _T H$ . The latter property is known as cone avoidance.

In this article, we design a natural class of Ramsey-like theorems encompassing many statements studied in reverse mathematics. We prove that this class admits a maximal statement satisfying cone avoidance and use it as a criterion to re-obtain many existing proofs of cone avoidance. This maximal statement asserts the existence, for every k-coloring of $[\omega ]^n$ , of an infinite subdomain $H \subseteq \omega $ over which the coloring depends only on the sparsity of its elements. This confirms the intuition that Ramsey-like theorems compute Turing degrees only through the sparsity of its solutions.

We study computable Polish spaces and Polish groups up to homeomorphism. We prove a natural effective analogy of Stone duality, and we also develop an effective definability technique which works up to homeomorphism. As an application, we show that there is a $\Delta ^0_2$ Polish space not homeomorphic to a computable one. We apply our techniques to build, for any computable ordinal $\alpha $, an effectively closed set not homeomorphic to any $0^{(\alpha )}$-computable Polish space; this answers a question of Nies. We also prove analogous results for compact Polish groups and locally path-connected spaces.

A problem is a multivalued function from a set of instances to a set of solutions. We consider only instances and solutions coded by sets of integers. A problem admits preservation of some computability-theoretic weakness property if every computable instance of the problem admits a solution relative to which the property holds. For example, cone avoidance is the ability, given a noncomputable set A and a computable instance of a problem ${\mathsf {P}}$ , to find a solution relative to which A is still noncomputable.

In this article, we compare relativized versions of computability-theoretic notions of preservation which have been studied in reverse mathematics, and prove that the ones which were not already separated by natural statements in the literature actually coincide. In particular, we prove that it is equivalent to admit avoidance of one cone, of $\omega $ cones, of one hyperimmunity or of one non- $\Sigma ^{0}_1$ definition. We also prove that the hierarchies of preservation of hyperimmunity and non- $\Sigma ^{0}_1$ definitions coincide. On the other hand, none of these notions coincide in a nonrelativized setting.

A mass problem is a set of functions $\omega \to \omega $ . For mass problems ${\mathcal {C}}, {\mathcal {D}}$ , one says that ${\mathcal {C}}$ is Muchnik reducible to ${\mathcal {D}}$ if each function in ${\mathcal {C}}$ is computed by a function in ${\mathcal {D}}$ . In this paper we study some highness properties of Turing oracles, which we view as mass problems. We compare them with respect to Muchnik reducibility and its uniform strengthening, Medvedev reducibility.

For $p \in [0,1]$ let ${\mathcal {D}}(p)$ be the mass problem of infinite bit sequences y (i.e., $\{0,1\}$ -valued functions) such that for each computable bit sequence x, the bit sequence $ x {\,\leftrightarrow\,} y$ has asymptotic lower density at most p (where $x {\,\leftrightarrow\,} y$ has a $1$ in position n iff $x(n) = y(n)$ ). We show that all members of this family of mass problems parameterized by a real p with $0 < p <1/2 $ have the same complexity in the sense of Muchnik reducibility. We prove this by showing Muchnik equivalence of the problems ${\mathcal {D}}(p)$ with the mass problem $\text {IOE}({2^{2}}^{n})$ ; here for an order function h, the mass problem $\text {IOE}(h)$ consists of the functions f that agree infinitely often with each computable function bounded by h. This result also yields a new version of the proof to of the affirmative answer to the “Gamma question” due to the first author: $\Gamma (A)< 1/2$ implies $\Gamma (A)=0$ for each Turing oracle A.

As a dual of the problem ${\mathcal {D}}(p)$ , define ${\mathcal {B}}(p)$ , for $0 \le p < 1/2$ , to be the set of bit sequences y such that $\underline \rho (x {\,\leftrightarrow\,} y)> p$ for each computable set x. We prove that the Medvedev (and hence Muchnik) complexity of the mass problems ${\mathcal {B}}(p)$ is the same for all $p \in (0, 1/2)$ , by showing that they are Medvedev equivalent to the mass problem of functions bounded by ${2^{2}}^{n}$ that are almost everywhere different from each computable function.

Next, together with Joseph Miller, we obtain a proper hierarchy of the mass problems of type $\text {IOE}$ : we show that for any order function g there exists a faster growing order function $h $ such that $\text {IOE}(h)$ is strictly above $\text {IOE}(g)$ in the sense of Muchnik reducibility.

We study cardinal characteristics in the sense of set theory that are analogous to the highness properties above. For instance, ${\mathfrak {d}} (p)$ is the least size of a set G of bit sequences such that for each bit sequence x there is a bit sequence y in G so that $\underline \rho (x {\,\leftrightarrow\,} y)>p$ . We prove within ZFC all the coincidences of cardinal characteristics that are the analogs of the results above.

Mauldin [15] proved that there is an analytic set, which cannot be represented by $B\cup X$ for some Borel set B and a subset X of a $\boldsymbol{\Sigma }^0_2$ -null set, answering a question by Johnson [10]. We reprove Mauldin’s answer by a recursion-theoretical method. We also give a characterization of the Borel generated $\sigma $ -ideals having approximation property under the assumption that every real is constructible, answering Mauldin’s question raised in [15].

We study multidimensional minimal and quasiperiodic shifts of finite type. We prove for these classes several results that were previously known for the shifts of finite type in general, without restriction. We show that some quasiperiodic shifts of finite type admit only non-computable configurations; we characterize the classes of Turing degrees that can be represented by quasiperiodic shifts of finite type. We also transpose to the classes of minimal/quasiperiodic shifts of finite type some results on subdynamics previously known for effective shifts without restrictions: every effective minimal (quasiperiodic) shift of dimension $d$ can be represented as a projection of a subdynamics of a minimal (respectively, quasiperiodic) shift of finite type of dimension $d+1$.

Varieties of the Fan Theorem have recently been developed in reverse constructive mathematics, corresponding to different continuity principles. They form a natural implicational hierarchy. Earlier work showed all of these implications to be strict. Here we reprove one of the strictness results, using very different arguments. The technique used is a mixture of realizability, forcing in the guise of Heyting-valued models, and Kripke models.

A correction is needed to our paper: to the definition contained within the statement of Lemma 1.5 and thus arguments around it in §3.

A structure is automatic if its domain, functions, and relations are all regular languages. Using the fact that every automatic structure is decidable, in the literature many decision problems have been solved by giving an automatic presentation of a particular structure. Khoussainov and Nerode asked whether there is some way to tell whether a structure has, or does not have, an automatic presentation. We answer this question by showing that the set of Turing machines that represent automata-presentable structures is ${\rm{\Sigma }}_1^1 $-complete. We also use similar methods to show that there is no reasonable characterisation of the structures with a polynomial-time presentation in the sense of Nerode and Remmel.

The survey contains a detailed discussion of methods and results in the new emerging area of online “punctual” structure theory. We also state several open problems.