Caltech-UCLA Logic Seminar

Martin's conjecture is an attempt to make precise the idea that the only natural functions on the Turing degrees are the constant functions, the identity, and transfinite iterates of the Turing jump. The conjecture is typically divided into two parts. Very roughly, the first part states that every natural function on the Turing degrees is either eventually constant or eventually increasing and the second part states that the natural functions which are increasing form a well-order under eventual domination, where the successor operation in this well-order is the Turing jump.

In joint work with Benny Siskind, we prove part 1 of Martin's conjecture for a class of functions that we call measure-preserving. This has a couple of consequences. First, it allows us to connect part 1 of Martin's conjecture to the structure of ultrafilters on the Turing degrees. Second, we also show that every order-preserving function on the Turing degrees is either eventually constant or measure-preserving and therefore part 1 of Martin's conjecture holds for order-preserving functions. This complements a result of Slaman and Steel from the 1980s showing that part 2 of Martin's conjecture holds for order-preserving Borel functions.