By constructing a maximal incomplete d.r.e. degree, the nondensity of the partial order of the d.r.e. degrees is established. An easy modification yields the nondensity of the n-r.e. degrees and of the ω-r.e. degrees.

A set of natural numbers is called d.r.e. if it may be obtained from some recursively enumerable set by deleting the numbers belonging to another recursively enumerable set. Sacks showed that for each non-recursive recursively enumerable set A there are disjoint recursively enumerable sets B, C which cover A such that A is recursive in neither A ∩ B nor A ∩ C. In this paper, we construct a counterexample which shows that Sacks's theorem is not in general true when (...) A is d.r.e. rather than r.e. (shrink)