Decidability and undecidability of extensions of second (first) order theory of (generalized) successor

Calvin C. Elgot, Michael O. Rabin

Journal of Symbolic Logic · 1966 · 136 citations · 5 references

Concepts

TL;DR

The paper investigates first- and second-order theories defined as the sets of sentences true in specified structures. The authors construct a structure (A, λ, Pα) and a language L with predicates for each α < λ, then analyze three language classes: first-order with equality, second-order monadic, and restricted second-order monadic over finite subsets.

Abstract

We study certain first and second order theories which are semantically defined as the sets of all sentences true in certain given structures. Let be a structure where A is a non-empty set, λ is an ordinal, and P α is an n ( α )-ary relation or function 4 on A . With we associate a language L appropriate for which may be a first or higher order calculus. L has an n ( α )-place predicate or function constant P for each α &lt; λ. We shall study three types of languages: (1) first-order calculi with equality; (2) second-order monadic calculi which contain monadic predicate (set) variables ranging over subsets of A ; (3) restricted (weak) second-order calculi which contain monadic predicate variables ranging over finite subsets of A .

References

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