On provability logics with linearly ordered modalities

Abstract

We introduce the logics GLP(Λ), a generalization of Japaridze's polymodal provability logic GLP(ω) where Λis any linearly ordered set representing a hierarchy of provability operators of increasing strength. We shall provide a reduction of these logics to GLP(ω) yielding among other things a finitary proof of the normal form theorem for the variable-free fragment of GLP(Λ) and the decidability of GLP(Λ) for recursive orderings Λ. Further, we give a restricted axiomatization of the variable-free fragment of GLP(Λ).