A Simple Character String Proof of the "True but Unprovable'' Version of Gödel's First Incompleteness Theorem

Abstract

A rather easy yet rigorous proof of a version of G\"odel's first incompleteness theorem is presented. The version is "each recursively enumerable theory of natural numbers with 0, 1, +, *, =, logical and, logical not, and the universal quantifier either proves a false sentence or fails to prove a true sentence". The proof proceeds by first showing a similar result on theories of finite character strings, and then transporting it to natural numbers, by using them to model strings and their concatenation. Proof systems are expressed via Turing machines that halt if and only if their input string is a theorem. This approach makes it possible to present all but one parts of the proof rather briefly with simple and straightforward constructions. The details require some care, but do not require significant background knowledge. The missing part is the widely known fact that Turing machines can perform complicated computational tasks.