Surreal number

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A visualization of the surreal number tree.

In mathematics, the surreal number system is a totally ordered proper class containing

the real numbers as well as infinite and infinitesimal numbers, respectively larger or
smaller in absolute value than any positive real number. The surreals share many
properties with the reals, including the usual arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction,
multiplication, and division); as such, they form an ordered field.[a] If formulated in von
Neumann–Bernays–Gödel set theory, the surreal numbers are a universal ordered field
in the sense that all other ordered fields, such as the rationals, the reals, the rational
functions, the Levi-Civita field, the superreal numbers, and the hyperreal numbers, can
be realized as subfields of the surreals. [1] The surreals also contain all transfinite ordinal
numbers; the arithmetic on them is given by the natural operations. It has also been
shown (in von Neumann–Bernays–Gödel set theory) that the maximal class hyperreal
field is isomorphic to the maximal class surreal field; in theories without the axiom of
global choice, this need not be the case, and in such theories it is not necessarily true
that the surreals are a universal ordered field.

Contents

 1History of the concept

 2Overview
 3Construction

o 3.1Forms

o 3.2Numeric forms

o 3.3Equivalence classes of numeric forms

o 3.4Order

o 3.5Induction

 4Arithmetic

o 4.1Negation

o 4.2Addition

o 4.3Multiplication

o 4.4Division

o 4.5Consistency

o 4.6Arithmetic closure

 5Infinity

o 5.1Contents of Sω

 6Transfinite induction

 7Powers of ω

 8Gaps and continuity

 9Exponential function

o 9.1Other exponentials

o 9.2Basic induction

o 9.3Results

o 9.4Examples

o 9.5Exponentiation

 10Surcomplex numbers
  11Games

 12Application to combinatorial game theory

 13Alternative realizations

o 13.1Sign expansion

 13.1.1Definitions

 13.1.2Addition and multiplication

 13.1.3Correspondence with Conway's realization

o 13.2Axiomatic approach

o 13.3Simplicity hierarchy

o 13.4Hahn series

 14Relation to hyperreals

 15See also

 16Notes

 17References

 18Further reading

 19External links

History of the concept[edit]

Research on the go endgame by John Horton Conway led to the original definition and
construction of the surreal numbers.[2] Conway's construction was introduced in Donald
Knuth's 1974 book Surreal Numbers: How Two Ex-Students Turned on to Pure
Mathematics and Found Total Happiness. In his book, which takes the form of a
dialogue, Knuth coined the term surreal numbers for what Conway had called
simply numbers.[3] Conway later adopted Knuth's term, and used surreals for analyzing
games in his 1976 book On Numbers and Games.
A separate route to defining the surreals began in 1907, when Hans
Hahn introduced Hahn series as a generalization of formal power series,
and Hausdorff introduced certain ordered sets called ηα-sets for ordinals α and asked if
it was possible to find a compatible ordered group or field structure. In 1962 Alling used
a modified form of Hahn series to construct such ordered fields associated to certain
ordinals α, and in 1987 he showed that taking α to be the class of all ordinals in his
construction gives a class that is an ordered field isomorphic to the surreal numbers. [4]
If the surreals are considered as ‘just’ a proper class sized real closed field, Alling's
1962 paper handles the case of strongly inaccessible cardinals which can naturally be
considered as proper classes by cutting off the cumulative hierarchy of the universe one
stage above the cardinal, and Alling accordingly deserves much credit for the
discovery/invention of the surreals in this sense. There is an important additional field
structure on the surreals that isn't visible through this lens however, namely the notion
of a ‘birthday’ and the corresponding natural description of the surreals as the result of a
cut-filling process along their birthdays given by Conway. This additional structure has
become fundamental to a modern understanding of the surreal numbers, and Conway is
thus given credit for discovering the surreals as we know them today — Alling himself
gives Conway full credit in a 1985 paper preceding his book on the subject. [5]

Overview[edit]
In the Conway construction,[6] the surreal numbers are constructed in stages, along with
an ordering ≤ such that for any two surreal numbers a and b, a ≤ b or b ≤ a. (Both may
hold, in which case a and b are equivalent and denote the same number.) Each number
is formed from an ordered pair of subsets of numbers already constructed: given
subsets L and R of numbers such that all the members of L are strictly less than all the
members of R, then the pair { L | R } represents a number intermediate in value
between all the members of L and all the members of R.
Different subsets may end up defining the same number: { L | R } and { L′ | R′ } may
define the same number even if L ≠ L′ and R ≠ R′. (A similar phenomenon occurs
when rational numbers are defined as quotients of integers: 1/2 and 2/4 are different
representations of the same rational number.) So strictly speaking, the surreal numbers
are equivalence classes of representations of form { L | R } that designate the same
number.
In the first stage of construction, there are no previously existing numbers so the only
representation must use the empty set: { | }. This representation, where L and R are
both empty, is called 0. Subsequent stages yield forms like
{ 0 | } = 1