k-Provability in $$\hbox {PA}$$
Paulo Guilherme Santos, Reinhard Kähle · Logica Universalis · 2021
Abstract We study the decidability of k -provability in $$\hbox {PA}$$ PA —the relation ‘being provable in $$\hbox {PA}$$ PA with at most k steps’—and the decidability of the proof-skeleton problem—the problem of deciding if a given formula has a proof that has a given skeleton (the list of axioms and rules that were used). The decidability of k -provability for the usual Hilbert-style formalisation of $$\hbox {PA}$$ PA is still an open problem, but it is known that the proof-skeleton problem is undecidable for that theory. Using new methods, we present a characterisation of some numbers k for which k -provability is decidable, and we present a characterisation of some proof-skeletons for which one can decide whether a formula has a proof whose skeleton is the considered one. These characterisations are natural and parameterised by unification algorithms.