--- /dev/null
+(**************************************************************************)
+(* ___ *)
+(* ||M|| *)
+(* ||A|| A project by Andrea Asperti *)
+(* ||T|| *)
+(* ||I|| Developers: *)
+(* ||T|| The HELM team. *)
+(* ||A|| http://helm.cs.unibo.it *)
+(* \ / *)
+(* \ / This file is distributed under the terms of the *)
+(* v GNU General Public License Version 2 *)
+(* *)
+(**************************************************************************)
+
+include "ground_2A/lib/arith.ma".
+
+(* SORT HIERARCHY ***********************************************************)
+
+(* sort hierarchy specification *)
+record sh: Type[0] ≝ {
+ next : nat → nat; (* next sort in the hierarchy *)
+ next_lt: ∀k. k < next k (* strict monotonicity condition *)
+}.
+
+definition sh_N: sh ≝ mk_sh S ….
+// defined.
+
+(* Basic properties *********************************************************)
+
+lemma nexts_le: ∀h,k,d. k ≤ (next h)^d k.
+#h #k #d elim d -d // normalize #d #IHd
+lapply (next_lt h ((next h)^d k)) #H
+lapply (le_to_lt_to_lt … IHd H) -IHd -H /2 width=2 by lt_to_le/
+qed.
+
+lemma nexts_lt: ∀h,k,d. k < (next h)^(d+1) k.
+#h #k #d >iter_SO
+lapply (nexts_le h k d) #H
+@(le_to_lt_to_lt … H) //
+qed.
+
+axiom nexts_dec: ∀h,k1,k2. Decidable (∃d. (next h)^d k1 = k2).
+
+axiom nexts_inj: ∀h,k,d1,d2. (next h)^d1 k = (next h)^d2 k → d1 = d2.