Isolation and the high/low hierarchy

Abstract Say that a d.c.e. degree d is isolated by a c.e. degree b, if b<d and any c.e. degree c below d is also below b, namely, b is the largest c.e. degree below d. Wu proved that there is a high d.c.e. degree d isolated by a low2 c.e. degree b. In this paper, we improve this result by making b low, not merely low2. RID=""ID="" <E5>Mathematics Subject Classification (2000):</E5> 03D25, 03D30, 03D35 RID=""ID="" <E5>Key words or phrases:</E5> Computably enumerable set – d.c.e. degree – Isolation – High/low hierarchy RID=""ID="" Ishmukhametov's research is supported by RFBR grant 01-01-00733, and Wu's research is supported by the Marsden Fund of New Zealand. Wu would like to thank his supervisor, Prof. Rod Downey, for his many helpful suggestions and comments.