Periodic points and subsystems of second-order arithmetic (Q2367412)

The paper is a contribution to reverse mathematics of Friedman and Simpson. Its aim is to study which part of second-order arithmetic is needed to prove Sharkovsky's theorem concerning periodic points in dynamical systems on a closed bounded interval of the real line. It is shown that Sharkovsky's theorem is provable in \(\text{WKL}_ 0\) and, with an additional assumption, also in \(\text{RCA}_ 0\). It is also proved that the existence for all \(n\) of \(n\)-fold iterates of continuous mappings of the closed unit interval into itself is equivalent to the disjunction of \(\Sigma^ 0_ 2\) induction and weak König's lemma.