Building on previous work by Mints, Buchholz and Schwichtenberg, a simplified version of continuous normalization for the untyped λ-calculus and Gödel’s is presented and analysed in the coalgebraic framework of non-wellfounded terms with so-called repetition constructors.The primitive recursive normalization function is uniformly continuous w.r.t. the natural metric on non-wellfounded terms. Furthermore, the number of necessary repetition constructors is locally related to the number of reduction steps needed to reach the normal form and its size.It is also shown how continuous normal (...) forms relate to derivations of strong normalizability in the typed λ-calculus and how this leads to new bounds for the sum of the height of the reduction tree and the size of the normal form.Finally, the methods are extended to an infinitary λ-calculus with ω-rule and permutative conversions and this is used to derive a strong form of normalization for an iterative version of Gödel’s system , leading to a value table semantics for number-theoretic functions. (shrink)

The main objective of this PhD Thesis is to present a method of obtaining strong normalization via natural ordinal, which is applicable to natural deduction systems and typed lambda calculus. The method includes (a) the definition of a numerical assignment that associates each derivation (or lambda term) to a natural number and (b) the proof that this assignment decreases with reductions of maximal formulas (or redex). Besides, because the numerical assignment used coincide with the length of a specific sequence of (...) reduction - the worst reduction sequence - it is the lowest upper bound on the length of reduction sequences. The main commitment of the introduced method is that it is constructive and elementary, produced only through analyzing structural and combinatorial properties of derivations and lambda terms, without appeal to any sophisticated mathematical tool. Together with the exposition of the method, it is presented a comparative study of some articles in the literature that also get strong normalization by means we can identify with the natural ordinal methods. Among them we highlight Howard[1968], which performs an ordinal analysis of Godel’s Dialectica interpretation for intuitionistic first order arithmetic. We reveal a fact about this article not noted by the author himself: a syntactic proof of strong normalization theorem for the system of typified lambda calculus λ⊃ is a consequence of its results. This would be the first strong normalization proof in the literature. (written in Portuguese). (shrink)