Skip to main content
7 of 7
deleted 328 characters in body

Open problem in analysis with just one quantifier?

I'm looking for an open problem in analysis or number theory with just one "genuine" or "second order" quantifier.

E.g.

  • "Every continuous function $\mathbb{R} \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$ has the property $\theta$", where $\theta$ is expressible using only quantifiers over rationals.

  • "Every set $S$ of natural numbers has the property $\theta$", where $\theta$ is expressible using only quantifiers over rationals.

No cheat examples like "For every real number, Goldbach's conjecture holds"! That's an arithmetical problem.

In technical terms, I'm looking for a $\Pi^1_1$ sentence that we don't know how to reduce to an arithmetical sentence.

I'd also like it to be easy to state and obviously $\Pi^1_1$, so that it can be included in a logic paper without requiring much explanation.