Unprovability in Mathematics: A First Course on Ordinal Analysis


Abstract in English

These are the lecture notes of an introductory course on ordinal analysis. Our selection of topics is guided by the aim to give a complete and direct proof of a mathematical independence result: Kruskals theorem for binary trees is unprovable in conservative extensions of Peano arithmetic (note that much stronger results of this type are due to Harvey Friedman). Concerning prerequisites, we assume a solid introduction to mathematical logic but no specialized knowledge of proof theory. The material in these notes is intended for 14 lectures and 7 exercise sessions of 90 minutes each.

Download