Much of recursion theory centers on the structures of different kinds of degrees. Classically there are the Turing degrees and r. e. Turing degrees. More recently, people have studied α-degrees for α an ordinal, and degrees over E-closed sets and admissible sets. In most contexts, deg(0) is the bottom degree and there is a jump operator' such that d' is the largest degree r. e. in d and d' > d. Both the degrees and the r. e. degrees usually have a rich structure, including a relativization to the cone above a given degree.

A natural exception to this pattern was discovered by S. Friedman [F], who showed that for certain admissible ordinals β the β-degrees ≥ 0′ are well-ordered, with successor provided by the jump.

For r. e. degrees, natural counterexamples are harder to come by. This is because the constructions are priority arguments, which require only mild restrictions on the ground model. For instance, if an admissible set has a well-behaved pair of recursive well-orderings then the priority construction of an intermediate r. e. degree (i.e., 0 < d < 0′) goes through [S]. It is of interest to see just what priority proofs need by building (necessarily pathological) admissible sets with few r. e. degrees.

Harrington [C] provides an admissible set with two r. e. degrees, via forcing. A limitation of his example is that it needs ω1 (more accurately, a local version thereof) as a parameter. In this paper, we find locally countable admissible sets, some with three r. e. degrees and some with four.