On Lachlan's major sub-degree problem (Q943340)

We restrict attention to computably enumerable degrees. Degree \(\mathbf a\) is a major sub-degree of degree \(\mathbf b>\mathbf a\) if \(\mathbf a\) and \(\mathbf b\) join to \(\mathbf 0'\) with exactly the same degrees, i.e., \(\mathbf b \lor\mathbf x = \mathbf 0'\) iff \(\mathbf a \lor \mathbf x = \mathbf 0'\). In 1967 Lachlan asked which degrees, if any, have major sub-degrees. This paper caps a series of partial results by proving that every degree lying properly between \(\mathbf 0\) and \(\mathbf 0'\) has a major sub-degree. The lengthy solution is uniform and effective, providing a computable function \(f\) such that for every \(e\), if \(W_e\) is neither recursive nor of degree \(\mathbf 0'\), the degree of \(W_{f(e)}\) is a major sub-degree of the degree of \(W_e\). In 1974 Yates established the existence of noncuppable degrees, nonzero degrees that join to \(\mathbf 0'\) only with \(\mathbf 0'\) itself. Any nonzero degree less than a noncuppable degree is a major sub-degree of it, answering part of Lachlan's question. In 1983 Jockusch and Shore proved the existence of cuppable degrees that have major sub-degrees, in fact high cuppable degrees with major sub-degrees that are low. In 1991 Seetapun showed that every nonzero low\(_2\) degree has a major sub-degree. Sharpening a discovery of Lachlan, Harrington proved in 1980 that there is a degree other than \(\mathbf 0'\) with the property that whenever a pair of degrees above it joins to \(\mathbf 0'\), one of them must be \(\mathbf 0'\). An immediate corollary of the present paper's result is that no degree is minimal among those with this property.