Interval orders and reverse mathematics

Alberto Marcone

Published 2006-09-01, updated 2007-02-21Version 2

We study the reverse mathematics of interval orders. We establish the logical strength of the implications between various definitions of the notion of interval order. We also consider the strength of different versions of the characterization theorem for interval orders: a partial order is an interval order if and only if it does not contain $2 \oplus 2$. We also study proper interval orders and their characterization theorem: a partial order is a proper interval order if and only if it contains neither $2 \oplus 2$ nor $3 \oplus 1$.