Higher Recursion Theory

This almost self-contained introduction to higher recursion theory is essential reading for all researchers in the field.

Since their inception, the Perspectives in Logic and Lecture Notes in Logic series have published seminal works by leading logicians. Many of the original books in the series have been unavailable for years, but they are now in print once again. This volume, the second publication in the Perspectives in Logic series, is an almost self-contained introduction to higher recursion theory, in which the reader is only assumed to know the basics of classical recursion theory. The book is divided into four parts: hyperarithmetic sets, metarecursion, α-recursion, and E-recursion. This text is essential reading for all researchers in the field.

This monograph presents recursion theory from a generalized point of view centered on the computational aspects of definability. A major theme is the study of the structures of degrees arising from two key notions of reducibility, the Turing degrees and the hyperdegrees, using techniques and ideas from recursion theory, hyperarithmetic theory, and descriptive set theory. The emphasis is on the interplay between recursion theory and set theory, anchored on the notion of definability. The monograph covers a number of fundamental results in hyperarithmetic theory as well as some recent results on the structure theory of Turing and hyperdegrees. It also features a chapter on the applications of these investigations to higher randomness.

This volume presents a unified and coherent account of the many and various parts of general recursion theory.

This volume, which ten years ago appeared as the first in the acclaimed series Lecture Notes in Logic, serves as an introduction to recursion theory. The fundamental concept of recursion makes the idea of computability accessible to a mathematical analysis, thus forming one of the pillars on which modern computer science rests. The clarity and focus of this text have established it as a classic instrument for teaching and self-study that prepares its readers for the study of advanced monographs and the current literature on recursion theory.

S. Homer: Admissible recursion theory.- B.E. Jacobs: Computational complexity and recursion theory.- D. Normann: A survey of set recursion.- G.E. Sacks: Priority arguments in Higgler recursion.- R.I. Soare: Construction in the recursively enumerable degrees.- W. Maass: Recursively invariant recursion theory.