Intervals without critical triples (Q4381407)

Let \(a\), \(b_0\) and \(b_1\) be elements in any upper semilattice \({\mathcal L}\) (such as the Turing degrees or the computably enumerable Turing degrees). We say that \(a\), \(b_0\) and \(b_1\) form a critical triple if \(a\cup b_0= a\cup b_1\), \(b_0\not\leq a\) and for \(d\in{\mathcal L}\), if \(d\leq b_0\), \(b_1\) then \(d\leq a\). We say that \(a\), \(b_0\) and \(b_1\) form a weak critical triple if \(a\cup b_0= a\cup b_1\), \(b_0\not\leq a\) and for \(d\in{\mathcal L}\), if \(d\leq b_0\), \(b_1\) then \(b_0\not\leq d\cup a\). The results in this paper fall into two groups. The first group of results concerns degrees which do not bound a weak critical triple. The other group of results concerns degrees above which there in no weak critical triple. The main results of this paper are the following theorems: 1. Every degree \(g\) is the join of two degrees \(e_0\) and \(e_1\) neither of which bound a weak critical triple in the computably enumerable degrees. 2. There is a nonlow computably enumerable degree \(e\) which does not bound a weak critical triple in the computably enumerable degrees. 3. There is a computably enumerable degree \(e\) above which there is no weak critical triple and below which there is no weak critical triple. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0884.00035].