Cut-elimination Website Links For
Theorem
 

Information About

Cut-elimination




A . However, that the sequent calculus is a fairly expressive framework, and there have been sequent calculi for intuitionistic logic proposed that allow many formulae in the RHS, and from Jean-Yves Girard 's logic LC is it easy to obtain a rather natural formalisation of classical logic where the RHS contains at most one formula; it is the interplay of the logical and structural rules that is the key here.

"Cut" is a rule in the normal statement of the Sequent Calculus , and equivalent to a variety of rules in other Proof Theories , which, given

: (1) (A, B, \ldots) dash C

and

: (2) C dash (D, E, \ldots)

allows one to infer

: (3) (A, B, \ldots) dash (D, E, \ldots)

That is, it "cuts" the occurrences of the formula "C" out of the inferential relation.

The cut-elimination theorem states that (for a given system) any sequent provable using the rule Cut can be proved without use of this rule. If we think of (D, E, \ldots) as a theorem, then cut-elimination simply says that a lemma C used to prove this theorem can be inlined. Whenever the theorem's proof mentions lemma C, we can substitute the occurrences for the proof of C. Consequently, the cut rule is Admissible .

For systems formulated in the sequent calculus, Analytic Proof s are those proofs that do not use Cut. Typically such a proof will be longer, of course, and not necessarily trivially so. In his essay "Don't Eliminate Cut!" George Boolos demonstrated that there was a derivation that could be completed in a page using cut, but whose analytic proof could not be completed in the lifespan of the universe.

The theorem has many, rich consequences. Once a system is shown to have a cut elimination theorem, it is normally immediate that the system is Consistent . Normally also the system has the Subformula Property , an important property in several approaches to Proof-theoretic Semantics . Cut elimination is one of the most powerful tools for proving Interpolation Theorem s. The possibility of carrying out proof search based on Resolution , the essential insight leading to the Prolog programming language, depends upon the admissibility of Cut in the appropriate system.