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As shown in Simpson's excellent Subsystems of Second Order Arithmetic, the ‘big five’ system ATR$_0$ from second-order reverse mathematics is equivalent to the following principle:

For arithmetical $\varphi$ such that $(\forall n)(\exists \text{ at most one } X)\varphi(X, n)$, there is $Z$ such that $(\forall m)(m\in Z\leftrightarrow (\exists X)\varphi(X,m))$.

My question is whether this ‘at most one’ comprehension principle is also equivalent to the following ‘at most finitely many’ principle, where $w^{1^*}$ is a finite sequence of sets of length $\lvert w\rvert$.

For arithmetical $\varphi$ such that $$ (\forall n)(\exists w^{1^*})(\forall X)\Bigl[\varphi(X, n)\rightarrow (\exists i< \lvert w\rvert)(X=w(i))\Bigr],\tag{*}\label{star} $$ there is $Z$ such that $(\forall m)(m\in Z\leftrightarrow (\exists X)\varphi(X,m))$.

Note that the condition \eqref{star} guarantees that there are only finitely many $X$ satisfying $\varphi(X,n)$, for fixed $n$.

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    $\begingroup$ A related phenomenon is the fact in set theory that a set is hereditarily ordinal definable if and only if it is hereditarily ordinal algebraic. (Algebraic means that the object has a property that only finitely many objects have.) See dx.doi.org/10.1215/00294527-3542326 $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 20, 2022 at 14:08
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    $\begingroup$ Another related phenomenon, which is classical and may have motivated the question, is that finite-to-one, or even countable-to-one, projections of Borel sets are Borel. $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 20, 2022 at 14:31
  • $\begingroup$ Is $|w|$ fixed here, or not? That is, should I read $(\ast)$ as saying $$(\exists l) (\forall n)(\exists w : [0,l-1] \to \mathbb N) (\forall X)\Bigl[\varphi(X, n)\rightarrow (\exists i< l )(X=w(i))\Bigr]\tag{*1}$$ or should I rather read it as saying $$(\forall n)(\exists l) (\exists w : [0,l-1] \to \mathbb N) (\forall X)\Bigl[\varphi(X, n)\rightarrow (\exists i< l )(X=w(i))\Bigr]\tag{*2}$$? (In either case I assume some coding is used to talk about having a function $w : [0,l-1] \to \mathbb N$.) $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 23, 2022 at 14:45

1 Answer 1

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The answer is positive, assuming extra induction, and a sketch is as follows.

Let $\varphi(X,n)$ be as in (*).

  1. Define an analytic code $A_n$ as follows $X\in A_n\leftrightarrow \varphi(X, n)$.

  2. Use induction (say for $\Sigma_2^1$-formulas) to show that $A_n$ can be enumerated (as a finite sequence).

  3. Now use V.4.10 from Subsystems of Second-order Arithmetic to show that $\cup_{n\in\mathbb{N}}A_n$ can be enumerated, say by $(X_m)_{m\in \mathbb{N}}$.

  4. Then for all $n\in \mathbb{N}$, we have

$$ (\exists X\subset \mathbb{N})\varphi(X, n)\leftrightarrow (\exists m\in \mathbb{N})\varphi(X_m, n), $$ and we are done. Note that step 3. makes use of ATR$_0$.

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