Difference hierarchy explained

In set theory, a branch of mathematics, the difference hierarchy over a pointclass is a hierarchy of larger pointclassesgenerated by taking differences of sets. If Γ is a pointclass, then the set of differences in Γ is

\{A:\existsC,D\in\Gamma(A=C\setminusD)\}

. In usual notation, this set is denoted by 2-Γ. The next level of the hierarchy is denoted by 3-Γ and consists of differences of three sets:

\{A:\existsC,D,E\in\Gamma(A=C\setminus(D\setminusE))\}

. This definition can be extended recursively into the transfinite to α-Γ for some ordinal α.[1]

In the Borel hierarchy, Felix Hausdorff and Kazimierz Kuratowski proved that the countable levels of the difference hierarchy over Π0γ giveΔ0γ+1.[2]

Notes and References

  1. .
  2. . See in particular p. 173.