Mathematics Seminar Series

New York City College of Technology(CUNY) 

 

 

Abstract of the Talk by: Dr. Victoria Gitman

 

Standard systems of non-standard models of Peano Arithmetic

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


There is a rich collection of structures satisfying the Peano Axioms, which are viewed as capturing the essential properties of number theory. The natural numbers with the operations of plus and times, (N,+,x),  is called the standard model of Peano Arithmetic (PA), while other structures are referred to as non-standard models. Non-standard models contain the natural numbers as an initial segment of their linear order and have very complex operations of plus and times on their non-standard part. One of the most fundamental concepts in the field is the standard system of a model of PA. The standard system is a particular collection of subsets of the natural numbers associated to a model of PA. Intuitively, standard systems are intended to capture the traces of information the non-standard model leaves on its standard part –the natural numbers. One of the most important open questions in the field of models of PA has been characterizing collections of subsets of the natural numbers that arise as standard systems. There is a proposed characterizing due to Scott from the 1960’s which holds for standard systems of sizes countable and omega_1. It remains an open question, known as Scott’s Problem, whether the characterization holds true for standard systems of all cardinalities. In this talk, I will give a brief introduction to non-standard models of PA, followed by a discussion of standard systems, Scott’s problem and my own recent contribution to it.

 

 

 

 


http://websupport1.citytech.cuny.edu/faculty/dkahrobaei/NYCCT_Math_Seminar.htm

 

 

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