Primitive recursion

A means of defining functions with natural number arguments and values. One says that an -place function is obtained by primitive recursion from an -place function and an -place function if for all natural number values of one has

and

For given and such a function exists always and is unique. For the defining equations for can be written as

A fundamental property of primitive recursion is that for any meaningful specification of the notion of computability, a function obtained from computable functions and by means of primitive recursion is itself computable (cf. Computable function). Primitive recursion is one of the basic ways for generating all primitive recursive and all partial recursive functions from an initial set of basic functions (cf. Primitive recursive function; Partial recursive function).

References

[1]	V.A. Uspenskii, "Leçons sur les fonctions calculables" , Hermann (1966) (Translated from Russian)
[2]	A.I. Mal'tsev, "Algorithms and recursive functions" , Wolters-Noordhoff (1970) (Translated from Russian)
[3]	H. Rogers jr., "Theory of recursive functions and effective computability" , McGraw-Hill (1967) pp. 164–165

References

[a1]	C. Calude, "Theories of computational complexity" , North-Holland (1988)
[a2]	Yu.I. Manin, "A course in mathematical logic" , Springer (1977) (Translated from Russian)
[a3]	S.C. Kleene, "Introduction to metamathematics" , North-Holland (1959) pp. Chapts. IX; XI, §54
[a4]	P. Odifreddi, "Classical recursion theory" , North-Holland (1989) pp. Chapt. II; esp. pp. 199ff