This semester the Logic Seminar continues at a new day and time, Fridays at 2:30 in Keller 314.
For the first meeting this Friday I will (probably) speak about _Skolem polynomials_:
Abstract:
Over 100 years ago Hardy proved that a certain large class of real functions
was linearly ordered by eventual domination. In 1956 Skolem asked
whether the subclass of integer exponential polynomials is *well*-ordered
by the Hardy ordering, and conjectured that its order type
is epsilon_0. (This class is the smallest containing 1, x, and closed
under +, x, and f^g.) In 1973 Ehrenfeucht proved that the class is
well-ordered, and since then there has been some progress on the order
type.
The proof of well-ordering is rather remarkable and very short, and I
will attempt to expose it (which is to say, cover it) in the hour.
David Ross