Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-model-theory-and-godel-s-incompleteness-theorems-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2008/a/2/b/solution

If PA is inconsistent, every desired conclusion is already a theorem, so it suffices to analyze the first-order consistent case. Use for the bounded arithmetical proof relation and for the code of the negation of the logical formula coded by .
Suppose and let be the code of an actual formal proof. By first-order consistency there is no formal proof of , in particular none with code at most . Thus
is a true bounded arithmetic sentence. Bounded completeness of an arithmetic theory proves it in PA, and existential introduction gives .
Conversely suppose and choose an actual formal proof code of that negation. First-order consistency excludes every formal proof of , so each of the finitely many statements for is true and provable. The supplied finite-case theorem permits PA to combine them into the assertion that no formal proof code below proves .
PA also proves . For any candidate formal proof code , this one code already refutes the universal no-earlier-negation condition in the Rosser predicate symbol. For , the finite verification refutes its positive formal proof condition. The supplied order dichotomy and finite-case expansion cover all . Therefore
The argument uses bounded verification of a finite initial segment and one fixed counter-witness beyond it; it does not infer that PA proves the absence of all ordinary formal proofs merely from first-order consistency.

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