Ordinal notation

Article summary

In mathematical logic and set theory, an ordinal notation is a partial function mapping the set of all finite sequences of symbols, themselves members of a finite alphabet, to a countable set of ordinals. A Gödel numbering is an injective function mapping the set of well-formed formula e (a finite sequence of symbols on which the ordinal notation function is defined) of some formal language to the natural numbers. This associates each well-formed formula with a unique natural number, called its Gödel number. If a Gödel numbering is fixed, then the subset relation on the ordinals induces an ordering on well-formed formulae, which in turn induces a well-ordering on the subset of natural numbers. A recursive ordinal notation must satisfy the following two additional properties: # the subset of natural numbers is a recursive set # the induced well-ordering on the subset of natural numbers is a recursive relation There are many such schemes of ordinal notations, including schemes by Wilhelm Ackermann, Heinz Bachmann, Wilfried Buchholz, Georg Cantor, Solomon Feferman, Gerhard Jäger, Isles, Pfeiffer, Wolfram Pohlers, Kurt Schütte, Gaisi Takeuti (called ordinal diagrams), Oswald Veblen. Stephen Cole Kleene has a system of notations, called Kleene's O, which includes ordinal notations but it is not as well behaved as the other systems described here.…

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