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I have read Ittay Weiss' survey on constructions of the real numbers: https://arxiv.org/abs/1506.03467

He writes that it is basically sufficient to construct the positive real numbers, as inverses (and 0) can be added in a final step. I was wondering how this works exactly. I am aware of the Grothendieck group construction: we can embed a semigroup in an abelian group by considering pairs of elements of the semigroup (representing their difference).

Is this sufficient? That is, can we simply apply this procedure to a totally ordered semifield (namely $\mathbb R_{\ge0}$) and expect to automatically get a totally ordered field? I have been unable to find a reference for this statement, and I am not sure how I would show this.

Stefanie
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  • Doesn't the author define the positive reals regardless the structure, then extends using $\mathbb R=\mathbb R_{\ge0}\cup-\mathbb R_{\ge0}$ where by definition $\overline r=-r$ so that $\overline r+r=0$, then establishes the group structure and order ? –  Mar 10 '20 at 11:00
  • He simply writes "typically it makes little difference whether one constructs the positive (or nonnegative) reals $\mathbb R_+$ and then extend to all the reals by formally adding inverses (and a 0 if needed), or constructing all of $\mathbb R$ in one go." No further details are given. – Stefanie Mar 10 '20 at 11:09
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    Isn't that compatible with my comment ? –  Mar 10 '20 at 11:17
  • The answer to your comment is No. He does not. I am getting the impression from his text that constructing $\mathbb R_+$ is enough and that you do NOT need to "establish group structure and order" after extending to $\mathbb R$. – Stefanie Mar 10 '20 at 11:51
  • Sorry to have disturbed. –  Mar 10 '20 at 11:53
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    Did you try to "establish group structure and order"? It might not be the best text book style but maybe Ittay Weiss thought that these steps are trivial so he considers them as a little difference. – quarague Mar 10 '20 at 13:30
  • Briefly, \begin{gather} x+y=y+x,\ x+(y+z)=(x+y)+z,\ x+y\ne x,\ x<y\iff(\exists z)\ x+z=y,\ x=y\text{ or }x<y\text{ or }y<x,\ \text{Every nonempty subset that is bounded above has a least upper bound},\ xy=yx,\ x(yz)=(xy)z,\ 1x=x,\ xx^{-1}=1,\ x(y+z)=xy+xz. \end{gather} I've been working on an answer that spells out all the details, but it's taking me forever. These comments should be taken with a pinch of salt until I've finished writing the answer and at least posted a summary. – Calum Gilhooley Mar 15 '20 at 19:11
  • @YvesDaoust [Edited.] That's how Landau does it. He doesn't characterise $\mathbb{R}{>0}$ axiomatically. Clifford, paraphrasing Holder (1901), characterises $\mathbb{R}{>0}$ as a complete, cancellative, naturally ordered semigroup without identity element and without a least element. At least, that is so once an arbitrary "unit" element has been selected to play the role of $1,$ which I suppose makes $\mathbb{R}_{>0}$ a "complete, cancellative, naturally ordered commutative semifield". – Calum Gilhooley Mar 15 '20 at 19:20
  • Those comments are out of sequence, because I had to edit the first one. They'll be deleted eventually anyway, along with this one. Please excuse the temporary mess! In the second comment (which now appears first), I should have stated explicitly: (1) the first line involving $<$ is the definition of $<$; (2) the five axioms involving multiplication can be replaced by the single axiom that for all $x$ there exist $y$ and $z$ such that $x=y+z.$ As was stated in CopyPasteIt's answer (now deleted), multiplication can be defined, given only the element $1,$ which is subject to no axiom. – Calum Gilhooley Mar 15 '20 at 19:38

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The common approach is to define an operation on $\def\R{\Bbb R^+} \def\x{\times} K=(\R,+)\x(\R,+)$ and then establish an equivalence relation to factor out the "superfluous" pairs resp. the ambiguity of representation. This will be an analogue route to how $\Bbb Q$ can be constructed from $\Bbb Z$, or $\Bbb Z$ can be constructed from $\Bbb N$ just to name a few.

Every Real number can be represented in a non-unique way as difference of two positive Real numbers, so the operation will represent a difference without using operations / notations like $-x$ or $x-y$ which we don't have yet. The non-uniqueness will be addressed by considering equivalence classes, and these classes will later on be called "Real numbers".

Specifically, define a binary operation + as

\begin{align} +:K\x K&\to K \\ (x,y) + (x',y') &\mapsto (x+x',y+y') \end{align} The pairs should function as a difference, i.e. we'd like $(x,y)=x-y$. Notice however that the right side does not mention − in any way, it just uses existing properties of $(\R,+)$.

In order to operate like a difference, i.e. $(x-y)+(x'-y') = (x+x') - (y+y')$, we notice that $x-y = (x+a)-(y+a)$ for any $a$. The equivalence relation will fix the ambiguity and implicitly introduce the properties of −

$$\def\~{\sim} (x,y) \~ (x',y') \quad\iff\quad x+y' = x'+y$$

Again, only features of $(\R,+)$ are used. Then consider the equivalence classes $R=(K,+)/\!\~$ and show:

  1. The definition + is is well defined in $R$, i.e. for any $k,k', q, q'$ in $K$ there is $$ k\~k' \;\land\; q\~q'\quad\implies\quad k+q \~ k'+q' $$ This means the result of $r+q$ is independent of which representative we chose for $r$ or $q$.

  2. $(R,+)$ (and $(K,+)$ for that matter) inherits properties from $(\R,+)$ like: + is closed, associative and kommutative.

  3. For any $x,y,z\in\R$ we have $$(x,y) + (z,z) = (x+z,y+z) \~ (x,y)$$ Thus $(z,z)$ operates as neutral element and we write $0_R:=(1,1)\~(z,z)\in\ R$.

  4. For any $x,y\in\R$ we have $$ (x+1,1) + (y+1,1) = (x+y+2, 2)\~(x+y+1, 1)$$ This means the elements of the form $(x+1,1)$ operate under addition exactly the same like the elements of $\R$ do; "$(x+1,1)$" or "$(x+a,a)$" are just fancy ways to write "$x$". This means the subset is isomorphic to $(\R,+)$: $$\left(\{(x+y,y)\in \R\!\x\R \}{\large/}\!\~,+\right) \;\simeq\; (\R,+)$$ This in turn means

    $R$ is actually an extension of $\R$: It contains an isomorphic copy of $(\R,+)$ and also new elements like $0_R=(1,1)$ that cannot be interpreted as element of $\R$.

  5. Observe that $(x,y)+(y,x) = (x+y,x+y)\~(1,1)=0_R$. This means $R$ has a neutral element $0_R$ and each element $(x,y)$ of $R$ has an additive inverse $(y,x)$.

    Hence $(R,+)$ is a group.

  6. We write: $$-(x,y) := (y,x)\quad\text{ and }\quad(x,y)-(x',y') := (x,y)+(y',x')$$

  7. Proceed in the same way for a multiplication provided we already have $\def\.{\cdot} (\R,+,\.)$: Define, now with $K=(\R,+,\.)\x(\R,+,\.)$ \begin{align} \cdot :K\x K&\to K \\ (x,y) \cdot (x',y') &\mapsto (x\.x'+y\.y', x\.y'+x'\.y) \end{align} Again, show it's well defined when applying ~, notice that it inherits closedness, associativity, kommutativity, distributivity from $K$.

  8. Notice $(x,y)\.(2,1) = (2x+y, 2y+x)\~(x+y)$ and hence we have a One $1_R\~(2,1)$ in $R$. And the same embedding like above still applies because $$(x+1,1)\.(y+1,1)=((x+1)(y+1)+1,x+y+2)\~(xy+1,1)$$ So $(K/\!\~,+,\.)$ is an extension of $(\R,+,\.)$.

You got the idea. You can proceed the same way for division, or if you don't have division yet define it similar and factor out that $x/y = (ax)/(ay)$. The only thing is to keep in mind that zero is special.

Likewise, relations like $=$, $\neq$, $<$, $\leqslant$, $>$, $\geqslant$ can be carried over, some of them with restrictions. For example $$x>y \iff z\.x > z\.y$$ for $x,y,z\in\R$, but monotony in $R$ only holds true if $z>0$.

The final step is then to identify $\R$ with it's isomorphic embedding in $R$ and use the notation $\Bbb R := R$ calling the equivalence classes Real numbers (again).


Note: The notation above is somewhat sloppy as it uses the same notation $(x,y)$ for elements of $\R\x\R$ and equivalence classes modulo ~ for brevity. More strict notation would be using $$R\ni\overline{(x,y)}:=\{(x',y')\in K \mid (x,y)\~(x',y')\}\subseteq K$$

emacs drives me nuts
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  • Thank you very much for your extensive reply! Do I get it right that this construction does not depend on how the positive real numbers themselves are constructed? It seems that you only need that this has been done and that we have established that they form a semifield. – Stefanie Mar 12 '20 at 08:01
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    @Stefanie : All you need are the used properties of $\Bbb R^+$, how you got these properties does not matter. However if your construction yields already all of $\Bbb R$, then you don't need constructions like above in the first place. – emacs drives me nuts Mar 12 '20 at 10:49
  • Of course. But it seems much easier to construct $\mathbb R^+$ first. Avoiding negative numbers just makes everything so much easier! Think conditionally convergent series etc. Thanks again! – Stefanie Mar 12 '20 at 14:02
  • BTW, do you have a (textbook) reference for this? The only constructions that I have seen in some detail construct all of $\mathbb R$ in one go. – Stefanie Mar 12 '20 at 14:57