Omega-consistency forbids a logical formula of any complexity for which and for every standard . The difference from one-consistency is that the matrix is unrestricted. It implies first-order consistency.
For a complete first-order consistent classical first-order theory, theorem membership obeys the ordinary Boolean truth tables. For example, it proves a conjunction exactly when it proves both conjuncts; completeness and first-order consistency also make theoremhood of a negation the complement of theoremhood of the first-order sentence. Omega-consistency additionally gives the witness propertyThe reverse implication is existential introduction. For the forward implication, if no standard instance were provable, completeness would give a formal proof of each negated instance, violating omega-consistency. This works also after replacing additional free variables by numerals.
Now induct on logical formulas with their remaining free variables replaced by standard numerals. At the atomic level, the equivalence between theoremhood and standard truth follows from bounded completeness of an arithmetic theory and bounded soundness of an arithmetic theory from (b). The Boolean steps use the truth-table facts just proved. The existential step uses the witness property and the induction hypothesis on its matrix; universal quantification follows by negation. Hencefor every first-order sentence . Completeness ensures it decides each first-order sentence, and this equivalence ensures every decision is correct.
Start with the supplied bounded-complete, one-consistent first-order theory proving a false first-order sentence . Replace it by its deductive closure, which preserves these properties and contains . Enumerate the arithmetic first-order sentences as . Recursively extend the current first-order theory by either or , choosing an extension which remains one-consistent as permitted by the supplied lemma, and then take its deductive closure. Call the resulting increasing sequence , with the initial first-order theory, and put .
Every stage is still bounded-complete. By (b), every stage has Sigma-1 soundness. If proved a false Sigma-1 first-order sentence, the finite formal proof would use assumptions from one stage , contradicting its Sigma-1 soundness. Thus has Sigma-1 soundness and is bounded-complete, so (b) makes it one-consistent.
This soundness of an arithmetic theory argument is essential: the definition of one-consistency involves infinitely many standard refutations, so it would be insufficient merely to say that a violation has a finite formal proof. What has a finite formal proof is the false existential sentence, and bounded completeness of an arithmetic theory is what turns one-consistency into the needed soundness of an arithmetic theory condition.
The union is deductively closed because each formal proof has finitely many assumptions. It contains either or for every first-order sentence, by the numeralwise enumeration in arithmetic, and contains the false first-order sentence . If it were omega-consistent, (c) would make it correct on all first-order sentences, contradicting . We have therefore constructedOmega-consistency always implies one-consistency by restricting its matrices. This counterexample proves that the converse is strictly false.
An arithmetic logical formula is , or bounded, if all its quantifiers are bounded by arithmetical first-order terms. A logical formula has an initial block of existential quantifiers followed by a bounded matrix, up to the usual logical transformations. Soundness of an arithmetic theory at a given level means that every first-order sentence of that level proved by the first-order theory is true in the standard natural numbers. Here -completeness means that every true bounded arithmetic sentence is provable.
A first-order theory is one-consistent if there is no bounded arithmetic formula for which it proves while proving for every standard natural number . This is a restricted form of omega-consistency. In particular one-consistency implies first-order consistency, since an inconsistent first-order theory proves every first-order sentence and its negation.
Suppose a -complete first-order theory is first-order consistent. If it proved a false bounded arithmetic sentence , the true bounded arithmetic sentence would also be provable by completeness, contradicting first-order consistency. Thus is -sound. Conversely -soundness excludes inconsistency because an inconsistent first-order theory proves the false bounded arithmetic sentence . ThereforeIf is one-consistent but proved a false existential sentence with bounded matrix, every standard instance would be true and hence provable. This violates one-consistency. Thus it is -sound. Conversely, -soundness implies first-order consistency by the previous argument, since bounded arithmetic sentences are included at the existential level. If proved , soundness of an arithmetic theory would give a standard witness with true. Bounded completeness of an arithmetic theory would then give , so first-order consistency prevents simultaneous formal proofs of all the negated instances. HenceMultiple existential logical variables can be treated as a finite tuple of witnesses; the same reasoning applies.
The compactness theorem states that a set of first-order sentences has a first-order model if and only if every finite subset has a first-order model.
For the nontrivial direction suppose every finite subset of is satisfiable. If were inconsistent, a finite formal derivation of a contradiction would use only finitely many premises . Soundness of an arithmetic theory would then exclude a first-order model of , contradicting finite satisfiability. Therefore is first-order consistent. The completeness theorem, proved by adjoining witnesses and constructing a Henkin term model, supplies a first-order model of .
The reverse direction is immediate by restriction of the list of required first-order sentences. The key reason compactness theorem follows from syntactic completeness is that every formal proof uses only finitely many premises, even when the whole first-order theory is infinite.