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Löb's theorem

Edited by Jaime Sevilla Molina last updated 10th Jul 2016

We trust Peano Arithmetic to correctly capture certain features of the standard model of arithmetic. Furthermore, we know that Peano Arithmetic is expressive enough to talk about itself in meaningful ways. So it would certainly be great if Peano Arithmetic asserted what now is an intuition: that everything it proves is certainly true.

In formal notation, let Prv stand for the standard provability predicate of PA. Then, Prv(T) is true if and only if there is a proof from the axioms and rules of inference of PA of T. Then what we would like PA to say is that Prv(S)⟹S for every sentence S.

But alas, PA suffers from a problem of self-trust.

Löb's theorem states that if PA⊢Prv(S)⟹S then PA⊢S. This immediately implies that if PA is consistent, the sentences PA⊢Prv(S)⟹S are not provable when S is false, even though according to our intuitive understanding of the standard model every sentence of this form must be true.

Thus, PA is incomplete, and fails to prove a particular set of sentences that would increase massively our confidence in it.

Notice that Gödel's second incompleteness theorem follows immediately from Löb's theorem, as if PA is consistent, then by Löb's PA⊬Prv(0=1)⟹0=1, which by the propositional calculus implies PA⊬¬Prv(0=1).

It is worth remarking that Löb's theorem does not only apply to the standard provability predicate, but to every predicate satisfying the Hilbert-Bernais derivability conditions.

Parents:
Mathematics
Children:
Löb's theorem and computer programs
Gödel II and Löb's theorem
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