By an unfounded chain for a function f:X→X we mean a sequence nω of elements of X s.t. fxn+1=xn for every n. Unfounded chains can be regarded as a generalization of fixed points, but on the other hand are linked with concepts concerning non-well-founded situations, as ungrounded sentences and the hypergame. In this paper, among other things, we prove a lemma in general topology, we exhibit an extensional recursive function from the set of sentences of PA into itself without an (...) unfounded chain, and we prove that every term in a Magari algebra has an unfounded chain. (shrink)

Using computable reducibility ⩽ on equivalence relations, we investigate weakly precomplete ceers (a “ceer” is a computably enumerable equivalence relation on the natural numbers), and we compare their class with the more restricted class of precomplete ceers. We show that there are infinitely many isomorphism types of universal (in fact uniformly finitely precomplete) weakly precomplete ceers, that are not precomplete; and there are infinitely many isomorphism types of non‐universal weakly precomplete ceers. Whereas the Visser space of a precomplete ceer always (...) contains an infinite effectively discrete subset, there exist weakly precomplete ceers whose Visser spaces do not contain infinite effectively discrete subsets. As a consequence, contrary to precomplete ceers which always yield partitions into effectively inseparable sets, we show that although weakly precomplete ceers always yield partitions into computably inseparable sets, nevertheless there are weakly precomplete ceers for which no equivalence class is creative. Finally, we show that the index set of the precomplete ceers is Σ3‐complete, whereas the index set of the weakly precomplete ceers is Π3‐complete. As a consequence of these results, we also show that the index sets of the uniformly precomplete ceers and of the e‐complete ceers are Σ3‐complete. (shrink)