Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 24 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Let enumerate all computably enumerable sets, with finite uniformly computable approximations increasing to . For example, take andWe construct a simple set by meeting the requirements : if is infinite, then . Begin with no enumerated elements and all requirements unmarked. At stage , process in this order. For an unmarked , if there is an with , enumerate the least such into and mark permanently. All membership tests at a stage are finite, and marking requires no test for eventual infinitude. The sparse-witness construction of a simple set therefore gives a computably enumerable set ; it is semidecidable by simulating this enumeration and halting when the input appears.
Each requirement enumerates at most one element. If an element in is enumerated by , then , so . At most elements of that interval can therefore enter , even if some requirements choose the same element. ConsequentlyThe complement of a set is infinite.
If is infinite, it contains some , and that element eventually belongs to at a stage with . If has already acted, it already placed an element of in . Otherwise it acts by this stage and does so now. Thus every infinite semidecidable set meets . Equivalently, its infinite complement of a set is an immune set. The constructed is semidecidable, coinfinite, and meets every infinite semidecidable set.
As a useful check on the construction, cannot be a computable set. If it were, its infinite complement of a set would also be a computably enumerable set disjoint from , contradicting the property just proved. The argument requires neither deciding which are infinite nor protecting a prechosen infinite list of omitted numbers; the numerical witness bound provides all the required room.