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The primitive recursive functions are closely related to mathematical finitism, and are used in several contexts in mathematical logic where a particularly constructive system is desired. Primitive recursive arithmetic (PRA), a formal axiom system for the natural numbers and the primitive recursive functions on them, is often used for this purpose.
The successor function is part of the formal language used to state the Peano axioms, which formalise the structure of the natural numbers.In this formalisation, the successor function is a primitive operation on the natural numbers, in terms of which the standard natural numbers and addition are defined. [1]
In mathematical logic, Gödel's β function is a function used to permit quantification over finite sequences of natural numbers in formal theories of arithmetic. The β function is used, in particular, in showing that the class of arithmetically definable functions is closed under primitive recursion, and therefore includes all primitive recursive functions.
Structural recursion includes nearly all tree traversals, including XML processing, binary tree creation and search, etc. By considering the algebraic structure of the natural numbers (that is, a natural number is either zero or the successor of a natural number), functions such as factorial may also be regarded as structural recursion.
Many mathematical axioms are based upon recursive rules. For example, the formal definition of the natural numbers by the Peano axioms can be described as: "Zero is a natural number, and each natural number has a successor, which is also a natural number." [2] By this base case and recursive rule, one can generate the set of all natural numbers.
These sequences of natural numbers can again be represented by single natural numbers, facilitating their manipulation in formal theories of arithmetic. Since the publishing of Gödel's paper in 1931, the term "Gödel numbering" or "Gödel code" has been used to refer to more general assignments of natural numbers to mathematical objects.
First, place the natural numbers along the top row. To determine a number in the table, take the number immediately to the left. Then use that number to look up the required number in the column given by that number and one row up. If there is no number to its left, simply look at the column headed "1" in the previous row.
The μ-recursive functions (or general recursive functions) are partial functions that take finite tuples of natural numbers and return a single natural number. They are the smallest class of partial functions that includes the initial functions and is closed under composition, primitive recursion, and the minimization operator μ .