Uniqueness quantification

In mathematics and logic, the phrase "there is one and only one" is used to indicate that exactly one object with a certain property exists. In mathematical logic, this sort of quantification is known as uniqueness quantification or unique existential quantification.

Uniqueness quantification is often denoted with the symbols "∃!" or ∃₌₁". For example, the formal statement

may be read aloud as "there is exactly one natural number n such that n - 2 = 4".

Proving uniqueness

The most common technique to proving uniqueness is to first prove existence of entity with the desired condition; then, to assume there exist two entities (say, a and b) that should both satisfy the condition, and logically deduce their equality, i.e. a = b.

As a simple high school example, to show x + 2 = 5 has only one solution, we assume there are two solutions first, namely, a and b, satisfying x + 2 = 5. Thus

By transitivity of equality,

By cancellation,

This simple example shows how a proof of uniqueness is done, the end result being the equality of the two quantities that satisfy the condition. However, that existence/expressibility must be proven before uniqueness, or else we cannot even assume the existence of those two quantities to begin with our current knowledge to date.