We analyze the axiomatic strength of the following theorem due to Rival and Sands [28] in the style of reverse mathematics. Every infinite partial order P of finite width contains an infinite chain C such that every element of P is either comparable with no element of C or with infinitely many elements of C. Our main results are the following. The Rival–Sands theorem for infinite partial orders of arbitrary finite width is equivalent to $\mathsf {I}\Sigma ^0_{2} + \mathsf {ADS}$ over $\mathsf {RCA}_0$. For each fixed $k \geq 3$, the Rival–Sands theorem for infinite partial orders of width $\leq \!k$ is equivalent to $\mathsf {ADS}$ over $\mathsf {RCA}_0$. The Rival–Sands theorem for infinite partial orders that are decomposable into the union of two chains is equivalent to $\mathsf {SADS}$ over $\mathsf {RCA}_0$. Here $\mathsf {RCA}_0$ denotes the recursive comprehension axiomatic system, $\mathsf {I}\Sigma ^0_{2}$ denotes the $\Sigma ^0_2$ induction scheme, $\mathsf {ADS}$ denotes the ascending/descending sequence principle, and $\mathsf {SADS}$ denotes the stable ascending/descending sequence principle. To the best of our knowledge, these versions of the Rival–Sands theorem for partial orders are the first examples of theorems from the general mathematics literature whose strength is exactly characterized by $\mathsf {I}\Sigma ^0_{2} + \mathsf {ADS}$, by $\mathsf {ADS}$, and by $\mathsf {SADS}$. Furthermore, we give a new purely combinatorial result by extending the Rival–Sands theorem to infinite partial orders that do not have infinite antichains, and we show that this extension is equivalent to arithmetical comprehension over $\mathsf {RCA}_0$.

Here, we present a category ${\mathbf {pEff}}$ which can be considered a predicative variant of Hyland's Effective Topos ${{\mathbf {Eff} }}$ for the following reasons. First, its construction is carried in Feferman’s predicative theory of non-iterative fixpoints ${{\widehat {ID_1}}}$ . Second, ${\mathbf {pEff}}$ is a list-arithmetic locally cartesian closed pretopos with a full subcategory ${{\mathbf {pEff}_{set}}}$ of small objects having the same categorical structure which is preserved by the embedding in ${\mathbf {pEff}}$ ; furthermore subobjects in ${{\mathbf {pEff}_{set}}}$ are classified by a non-small object in ${\mathbf {pEff}}$ . Third ${\mathbf {pEff}}$ happens to coincide with the exact completion of the lex category defined as a predicative rendering in ${{\widehat {ID_1}}}$ of the subcategory of ${{\mathbf {Eff} }}$ of recursive functions and it validates the Formal Church’s thesis. Hence pEff turns out to be itself a predicative rendering of a full subcategory of ${{\mathbf {Eff} }}$ .

Computability, while usually performed within the context of ω, may be extended to larger ordinals by means of α-recursion. In this article, we concentrate on the particular case of ω1-recursion, and study the differences in the behavior of ${\rm{\Pi }}_1^0$-classes between this case and the standard one.

Of particular interest are the ${\rm{\Pi }}_1^0$-classes corresponding to computable trees of countable width. Classically, it is well-known that the analog to König’s Lemma—“every tree of countable width and uncountable height has an uncountable branch”—fails; we demonstrate that not only does it fail effectively, but also that the failure is as drastic as possible. This is proven by showing that the ω1-Turing degrees of even isolated paths in computable trees of countable width are cofinal in the ${\rm{\Delta }}_1^1\,{\omega _1}$-Turing degrees.

Finally, we consider questions of nonisolated paths, and demonstrate that the degrees realizable as isolated paths and the degrees realizable as nonisolated ones are very distinct; in particular, we show that there exists a computable tree of countable width so that every branch can only be ω1-Turing equivalent to branches of trees with ${\aleph _2}$-many branches.

We establish the decidability of the ${{\rm{\Sigma }}_2}$ theory of both the arithmetic and hyperarithmetic degrees in the language of uppersemilattices, i.e., the language with ≤, 0 , and $\sqcup$. This is achieved by using Kumabe-Slaman forcing, along with other known results, to show given finite uppersemilattices ${\cal M}$ and ${\cal N}$, where ${\cal M}$ is a subuppersemilattice of ${\cal N}$, that every embedding of ${\cal M}$ into either degree structure extends to one of ${\cal N}$ iff ${\cal N}$ is an end-extension of ${\cal M}$.

We introduce the notion of finitary computable reducibility on equivalence relations on the domain ω. This is a weakening of the usual notion of computable reducibility, and we show it to be distinct in several ways. In particular, whereas no equivalence relation can be ${\rm{\Pi }}_{n + 2}^0$ -complete under computable reducibility, we show that, for every n, there does exist a natural equivalence relation which is ${\rm{\Pi }}_{n + 2}^0$ -complete under finitary reducibility. We also show that our hierarchy of finitary reducibilities does not collapse, and illustrate how it sharpens certain known results. Along the way, we present several new results which use computable reducibility to establish the complexity of various naturally defined equivalence relations in the arithmetical hierarchy.

A generic computation of a subset A of ℕ is a computation which correctly computes most of the bits of A, but which potentially does not halt on all inputs. The motivation for this concept is derived from complexity theory, where it has been noticed that frequently, it is more important to know how difficult a type of problem is in the general case than how difficult it is in the worst case. When we study this concept from a recursion theoretic point of view, to create a transitive relationship, we are forced to consider oracles that sometimes fail to give answers when asked questions. Unfortunately, this makes working in the generic degrees quite difficult. Indeed, we show that generic reduction is $\Pi _1^1$―complete. To help avoid this difficulty, we work with the generic degrees of density-1 reals. We demonstrate how an understanding of these degrees leads to a greater understanding of the overall structure of the generic degrees, and we also use these density-1 sets to provide a new a characterization of the hyperartithmetical Turing degrees.

We study the relative complexity of equivalence relations and preorders from computability theory and complexity theory. Given binary relations R, S, a componentwise reducibility is defined by

R ≤ S ⇔ ∃f ∀x, y [x R y ↔ f (x) S f (y)].

Here, f is taken from a suitable class of effective functions. For us the relations will be on natural numbers, and f must be computable. We show that there is a ${\rm{\Pi }}_1^0$-complete equivalence relation, but no ${\rm{\Pi }}_k^0$-complete for k ≥ 2. We show that ${\rm{\Sigma }}_k^0$ preorders arising naturally in the above-mentioned areas are ${\rm{\Sigma }}_k^0$-complete. This includes polynomial time m-reducibility on exponential time sets, which is ${\rm{\Sigma }}_2^0$, almost inclusion on r.e. sets, which is ${\rm{\Sigma }}_3^0$, and Turing reducibility on r.e. sets, which is ${\rm{\Sigma }}_4^0$.

We prove that by showing that for any set C not of PA-degree and any set A, there exists an infinite subset G of A or such that G ⊕ C is also not of PA-degree.

We study the minimal complexity of tilings of a plane with a given tile set. We note that every tile set admits either no tiling or some tiling with Kolmogorov complexity of its (n × n)-squares. We construct tile sets for which this bound is tight: all (n × n)-squares in all tilings have complexity Ω(n). This adds a quantitative angle to classical results on non-recursivity of tilings—that we also develop in terms of Turing degrees of unsolvability.

We study the proof–theoretic strength and effective content of the infinite form of Ramsey's theorem for pairs. Let RTkn denote Ramsey's theorem for k–colorings of n–element sets, and let RT<∞n denote (∀k)RTkn. Our main result on computability is: For any n ≥ 2 and any computable (recursive) k–coloring of the n–element sets of natural numbers, there is an infinite homogeneous set X with X″ ≤T 0(n). Let IΣn and BΣn denote the Σn induction and bounding schemes, respectively. Adapting the case n = 2 of the above result (where X is low2) to models of arithmetic enables us to show that RCA0 + IΣ2 + RT22 is conservative over RCA0 + IΣ2 for Π11 statements and that RCA0 + IΣ3 + RT<∞2 is Π11-conservative over RCA0 + IΣ3. It follows that RCA0 + RT22 does not imply BΣ3. In contrast, J. Hirst showed that RCA0 + RT<∞2 does imply BΣ3, and we include a proof of a slightly strengthened version of this result. It follows that RT<∞2 is strictly stronger than RT22 over RCA0.

In 1981 two notions of effective presentation of countable connected graphs were formulated by J. C. E. Dekker—namely, edge recognition algorithm graphs and minimal path algorithm graphs. In this paper we show that every planar graph has a minimal path algorithm presentation but that some graphs have no minimal path algorithm presentations. We introduce the notion of a shortest distance algorithm graph, show that it lies strictly between the two notions of Dekker, and show that every graph has a shortest distance algorithm presentation. Finally, in contrast to Dekker's result about minimal path algorithm graphs, we produce a shortest distance algorithm graph which has no spanning tree which is an edge recognition algorithm graph.