Signed-Bit Representations of Real Numbers

Abstract

The signed-bit representation of real numbers is like the binary representation, but in addition to 0 and 1 you can also use -1. It lends itself especially well to the constructive (intuitionistic) theory of the real numbers. The first part of the paper develops and studies the signed-bit equivalents of three common notions of a real number: Dedekind cuts, Cauchy sequences, and regular sequences. This theory is then applied to homomorphisms of Riesz spaces into the reals.