Throughout, is the set of natural numbers, is the canonical map of , claim numbers for refer to Properties of the Canonical Map from the Natural Numbers to an Ordered Field, and claim numbers for refer to Arithmetic, Order and Discreteness of the Integers. For , abbreviates in the ordered field .
Claim 1. Define
Each value of is an integer: by the definition of , and is closed under the difference of two of its elements by claim 2.
Conversely, every integer is a value of . By claim 1, and for . Hence
for every . By the definition of , every integer is , or , or for some , so . Since is countable by The Set of Pairs of Natural Numbers is Countable, claim 4 of Basic Properties of Countable Sets shows that is countable.
Claim 2. The set is a subset of , hence countable by claim 1 above and claim 3 of Basic Properties of Countable Sets. By claim 1 of Products and Powers of Countable Sets, the Cartesian product is countable. Define
which is well defined because has a multiplicative inverse in the field . By the definition of , the set of values of is exactly , so claim 4 of Basic Properties of Countable Sets shows that is countable.
Claim 3. Immediate from claim 2 and claim 2 of Products and Powers of Countable Sets, applied with .
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Prerequisites
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