Ackermann関数は二変数の関数\(\mathord {\textnormal {\textsf {ack}}}:\mathbb {N}\to \mathbb {N}\to \mathbb {N}\)で、次のように定義される。
- -\(\mathord {\textnormal {\textsf {ack}}}(0,n)\equiv \mathord {\textnormal {\textsf {succ}}}(n)\)
- -\(\mathord {\textnormal {\textsf {ack}}}(\mathord {\textnormal {\textsf {succ}}}(m),0)\equiv \mathord {\textnormal {\textsf {ack}}}(m,\mathord {\textnormal {\textsf {succ}}}(0))\)
- -\(\mathord {\textnormal {\textsf {ack}}}(\mathord {\textnormal {\textsf {succ}}}(m),\mathord {\textnormal {\textsf {succ}}}(n))\equiv \mathord {\textnormal {\textsf {ack}}}(m,\mathord {\textnormal {\textsf {ack}}}(\mathord {\textnormal {\textsf {succ}}}(m),n))\)