11.3.3 The algebraic structure of Cauchy reals
We first define the additive structure
![]()
. Clearly, the additive unit element is just , while the additive inverse is obtained as theextension
of the additive inverse , using \\autorefRC-extend-Q-Lipschitzwith Lipschitz constant . We have to work a bit harder for addition
.
Lemma 11.3.1.
Suppose satisfies, for all ,
Then there is a function such that for all . Furthermore,for all and ,
Proof.
We use -recursion to construct the curried form of as a map where is the space of non-expanding real-valuedfunctions:
We shall also need a suitable on , which we define as
Clearly, if then for all , so is separated.
For the base case we define , where , as theextension of the Lipschitz map from to , asconstructed in \\autorefRC-extend-Q-Lipschitz with Lipschitz constant . Next, for aCauchy approximation , we define as
For this to be a valid definition, should be aCauchy approximation, so consider any . Then by assumption, hence. Furthermore, is non-expanding because is such by inductionhypothesis. Indeed, if then, for all ,
therefore by the fourth constructor of .
We still have to check four more conditions, let us illustrate just one. Suppose and for some we have and . To show, consider any and observe that
Therefore, by the second constructor of , we haveas required.∎
We may apply \\autorefRC-binary-nonexpanding-extension to any bivariate rational function![]()
which is non-expanding separately in each variable. Addition is such a function, thereforewe get .Furthermore, the extension is unique as long as werequire it to be non-expanding in each variable, and just as in the univariate case,identities
on rationals extend to identities on reals. Since composition of non-expandingmaps is again non-expanding, we may conclude that addition satisfies the usual properties,such as commutativity and associativity.Therefore, is a commutativegroup.
We may also apply \\autorefRC-binary-nonexpanding-extension to the functions and , which turns into a lattice![]()
. The partialorder
![]()
on is defined in terms of as
The relation![]()
is a partial order because it is such on , and the axioms of apartial order are expressible as equations in terms of and , so they transferto .
Another function which extends to by the same method is the absolute value![]()
.Again, it has the expected properties because they transfer from to .
From we get the strict order by
That is, holds when there merely exists a pair of rational numbers such that and . It is not hard to check that is irreflexive![]()
andtransitive
![]()
, and has other properties that are expected for an ordered field.The archimedean principle follows directly from the definition of .
Theorem 11.3.2 (Archimedean principle for ).
For every such that there merely exists such that .
Proof.
From we merely get such that , and we may take .∎
We now have enough structure on to express with standard concepts.
Lemma 11.3.3.
If and satisfy , then for any and , if then .
Proof.
Note that the function is Lipschitz with constant .First consider the case when is rational.For this we use induction![]()
on .If is rational, then the statement is obvious.If is , we assume inductively that for any , if then , i.e. .
Now assuming and , we have such that , hence whenever .Thus, the inductive hypothesis gives for such .But by definition,
Since the limit of an eventually constant Cauchy approximation is that constant, we have
hence .
Now consider a general .Since means , the assumption and the Lipschitz property of imply .Thus, since , the first case implies , and hence by transitivity of .∎
Lemma 11.3.4.
Suppose and satisfy . Then:
- 1.
For any and , if then .
- 2.
There exists such that for any , if we have .
Proof.
By definition, means there is with and .Then by \\autorefthm:RC-le-grow, for any , if then .Conclusion![]()
1 follows immediately since , while for 2 we can take any .∎
We are now able to show that the auxiliary relation is what we think it is.
Theorem 11.3.5.
for all and .
Proof.
The Lipschitz properties of subtraction and absolute value imply that if , then .Thus, for the left-to-right direction, it will suffice to show that if , then .We proceed by -induction on .
If is rational, the statement follows immediately since absolute value and order extend the standard ones on .If is , then by roundedness we have with .By the triangle inequality![]()
![]()
, therefore, we have , so the inductive hypothesis yields .But , hence by the Lipschitz property, so \\autorefthm:RC-lt-open1 implies .
In the other direction, we use -induction on and .If both are rational, this is the first constructor of .
If is and is , we assume inductively that for any , if then .Fix an such that .Since is order-dense in , there exists with .Now for any we have , hence by the Lipschitz property
Thus, by \\autorefthm:RC-lt-open1, we have .So by the inductive hypothesis, , and thus by the triangle inequality.Thus, it suffices to choose .
The remaining two cases are entirely analogous.∎
Next, we would like to equip with multiplicative structure. For each themap is Lipschitz with constant11We defined Lipschitzconstants as positive rational numbers. , and so we can extend it tomultiplication by on the real numbers. Therefore is a vector space over .In general, we can define multiplication of real numbers as
| (11.3.6) |
so we just need squaring as a map . Squaring is not aLipschitz map, but it is Lipschitz on every bounded domain, which allows us to patch ittogether. Define the open and closed intervals![]()
Although technically an element of or is a Cauchy real number together with a proof, since the latter inhabits a mere proposition it is uninteresting.Thus, as is common with subset types, we generally write simply whenever is such that , and similarly.
Theorem 11.3.7.
There exists a unique function which extends squaring of rational numbers and satisfies
Proof.
We first observe that for every there merely exists such that , see \\autorefex:traditional-archimedean, so the map
is surjective. Next, for each , the squaring map
is Lipschitz with constant , so we can use \\autorefRC-extend-Q-Lipschitz toextend it to a map with Lipschitz constant , see\\autorefRC-Lipschitz-on-interval for details. The maps are compatible: if for some then restricted to must agree with because both are Lipschitz, and therefore continuous![]()
in the senseof \\autorefRC-continuous-eq. Therefore, by \\autoreflem:images_are_coequalizers the map
factors uniquely through to give us the desired function.∎
At this point we have the ring structure of the reals and the archimedean order. Toestablish as an archimedean ordered field, we still need inverses
![]()
.
Theorem 11.3.8.
A Cauchy real is invertible if, and only if, it is apart from zero.
Proof.
First, suppose has an inverse By the archimedean principle there is such that . Then and hence , which is to say that .
For the converse![]()
we construct the inverse map
by patching together functions, similarly to the construction of squaring in\\autorefRC-squaring. We only outline the main steps. For every let
Then, as ranges over , the types and jointly cover. On each such and theinverse function is obtained by an application of \\autorefRC-extend-Q-Lipschitzwith Lipschitz constant . Finally, \\autoreflem:images_are_coequalizersguarantees that the inverse function factors uniquely through .∎
We summarize the algebraic structure of with a theorem.
Theorem 11.3.9.
The Cauchy reals form an archimedean ordered field.