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Publication . Ferreira, Fernando; Ferreira, Gilda

It has been known for six years that the restriction of Girard’s polymorphic system F to atomic universal instantiations interprets the full fragment of the intuitionistic propositional calculus. We firstly observe that Tait’s method of “convertibility” applies quite naturally to the proof of strong normalization of the restricted Girard system. We then show that each β-reduction step of the full intuitionistic propositional calculus translates into one or more βη-reduction steps in the restricted Girard system. As a consequence, we obtain a novel and perspicuous proof of the strong normalization property for the full intuitionistic propositional calculus. It is noticed that this novel proof bestows a crucial role to η-conversions.

2013Journal article

Open access

Techniques in weak analysis for conservation results

Publication . Fernandes, António; Ferreira, Fernando; Ferreira, Gilda

We review and describe the main techniques for setting up systems of weak analysis, i.e. formal systems of second-order arithmetic related to subexponential classes of computational complexity. These involve techniques of proof theory (e.g., Herbrand’s theorem and the cut-elimination theorem) and model theoretic techniques like forcing. The techniques are illustrated for the particular case of polytime computability. We also include a brief section where we list the known results in weak analysis.

2013-09Journal article

Open access

Interpretability in Robinson's Q

Publication . Ferreira, Fernando; Ferreira, Gilda

Edward Nelson published in 1986 a book defending an extreme formalist view of mathematics according to which there is an impassable barrier in the totality of exponentiation. On the positive side, Nelson embarks on a program of investigating how much mathematics can be interpreted in Raphael Robinson’s theory of arithmetic Q. In the shadow of this program, some very nice logical investigations and results were produced by a number of people, not only regarding what can be interpreted in Q but also what cannot be so interpreted. We explain some of these results and rely on them to discuss Nelson’s position.

2013Journal article

Open access

Bounded theories for polyspace computability

Publication . Bianconi, Ricardo; Ferreira, Gilda; Silva, Emmanuel

We present theories of bounded arithmetic and weak analysis whose provably total functions (with appropriate graphs) are the polyspace computable functions. More precisely, inspired in Ferreira’s systems PTCA, Sigma^b_1-NIA and BTFA in the polytime framework, we propose analogue theories concerning polyspace computability. Since the techniques we employ in the characterization of PSPACE via formal systems (e.g. Herbrand’s theorem, cut-elimination theorem and the expansion of models) are similar to the ones involved in the polytime setting, we focus on what is specific of polyspace and explains the lift from PTIME to PSPACE.

2013Journal article

Open access