Abstract

A Partial Combinatory Algebra is completable if it can be extended to a total one. Klop [11, 12] gave a sufficient condition for completability of a PCA M = (M,·,K,S) in the form of ten axioms (inequalities) on terms of M. We prove that Klop’s sufficient condition is equivalent to the existence of an injective s-m-n function over M (that in turns is equivalent to the Padding Lemma). This is proved by working with an alternative characterization of PCA’s, recently introduced by the authors (Effective Applicative Structures). As a corollary, we show that nine of Klop’s ten axioms are actually redundant (the so called Barendregt’s axiom is enough to guarantee completability). Moreover, we prove that any Uniformly Reflexive Structure [17, 18, 16] is completable. 1

Citations