Baire space (set theory)In set theory, the Baire space is the set of all infinite sequences of natural numbers with a certain topology. This space is commonly used in descriptive set theory, to the extent that its elements are often called "reals". It is denoted NN, ωω, by the symbol or also ωω, not to be confused with the countable ordinal obtained by ordinal exponentiation. The Baire space is defined to be the Cartesian product of countably infinitely many copies of the set of natural numbers, and is given the product topology (where each copy of the set of natural numbers is given the discrete topology).
PointclassIn the mathematical field of descriptive set theory, a pointclass is a collection of sets of points, where a point is ordinarily understood to be an element of some perfect Polish space. In practice, a pointclass is usually characterized by some sort of definability property; for example, the collection of all open sets in some fixed collection of Polish spaces is a pointclass. (An open set may be seen as in some sense definable because it cannot be a purely arbitrary collection of points; for any point in the set, all points sufficiently close to that point must also be in the set.
Cantor spaceIn mathematics, a Cantor space, named for Georg Cantor, is a topological abstraction of the classical Cantor set: a topological space is a Cantor space if it is homeomorphic to the Cantor set. In set theory, the topological space 2ω is called "the" Cantor space. The Cantor set itself is a Cantor space. But the canonical example of a Cantor space is the countably infinite topological product of the discrete 2-point space {0, 1}. This is usually written as or 2ω (where 2 denotes the 2-element set {0,1} with the discrete topology).
Axiom of determinacyIn mathematics, the axiom of determinacy (abbreviated as AD) is a possible axiom for set theory introduced by Jan Mycielski and Hugo Steinhaus in 1962. It refers to certain two-person topological games of length ω. AD states that every game of a certain type is determined; that is, one of the two players has a winning strategy. Steinhaus and Mycielski's motivation for AD was its interesting consequences, and suggested that AD could be true in the smallest natural model L(R) of a set theory, which accepts only a weak form of the axiom of choice (AC) but contains all real and all ordinal numbers.
Borel hierarchyIn mathematical logic, the Borel hierarchy is a stratification of the Borel algebra generated by the open subsets of a Polish space; elements of this algebra are called Borel sets. Each Borel set is assigned a unique countable ordinal number called the rank of the Borel set. The Borel hierarchy is of particular interest in descriptive set theory. One common use of the Borel hierarchy is to prove facts about the Borel sets using transfinite induction on rank. Properties of sets of small finite ranks are important in measure theory and analysis.
Analytical hierarchyIn mathematical logic and descriptive set theory, the analytical hierarchy is an extension of the arithmetical hierarchy. The analytical hierarchy of formulas includes formulas in the language of second-order arithmetic, which can have quantifiers over both the set of natural numbers, , and over functions from to . The analytical hierarchy of sets classifies sets by the formulas that can be used to define them; it is the lightface version of the projective hierarchy.
Projective hierarchyIn the mathematical field of descriptive set theory, a subset of a Polish space is projective if it is for some positive integer . Here is if is analytic if the complement of , , is if there is a Polish space and a subset such that is the projection of onto ; that is, The choice of the Polish space in the third clause above is not very important; it could be replaced in the definition by a fixed uncountable Polish space, say Baire space or Cantor space or the real line.
Axiom of projective determinacyIn mathematical logic, projective determinacy is the special case of the axiom of determinacy applying only to projective sets. The axiom of projective determinacy, abbreviated PD, states that for any two-player infinite game of perfect information of length ω in which the players play natural numbers, if the victory set (for either player, since the projective sets are closed under complementation) is projective, then one player or the other has a winning strategy.
Real numberIn mathematics, a real number is a number that can be used to measure a continuous one-dimensional quantity such as a distance, duration or temperature. Here, continuous means that pairs of values can have arbitrarily small differences. Every real number can be almost uniquely represented by an infinite decimal expansion. The real numbers are fundamental in calculus (and more generally in all mathematics), in particular by their role in the classical definitions of limits, continuity and derivatives.
Effective descriptive set theoryEffective descriptive set theory is the branch of descriptive set theory dealing with sets of reals having lightface definitions; that is, definitions that do not require an arbitrary real parameter (Moschovakis 1980). Thus effective descriptive set theory combines descriptive set theory with recursion theory. Effective Polish space An effective Polish space is a complete separable metric space that has a computable presentation. Such spaces are studied in both effective descriptive set theory and in constructive analysis.
