We present a survey of some results of the pcf-theory and their applications to cardinal arithmetic. We review basics notions (in section 1), briefly look at history in section 2 (and some personal history in section 3). We present main results on pcf in section 5 and describe applications to cardinal arithmetic in section 6. The limitations on independence proofs are discussed in section 7, and in section 8 we discuss the status of two axioms that arise in the new setting. Applications to other areas are found in section 9.
Suppose that there is a measurable cardinal. If \aleph_ωis a strong limit cardinal, but the power of \aleph_ωis bigger than \aleph_{ω_1}, then there is an inner model with a Woodin cardinal. Modulo the need of the measurable cardinal this answers a question of Gitik and Mitchell.
From large cardinals we show the consistency of normal, fine, $κ$-complete $λ$-dense ideals on $\mathcal{P}_κ(λ)$ for successor $κ$. We explore the interplay between dense ideals, cardinal arithmetic, and squares, answering some open questions of Foreman.
Part A: A revised version of the guide in "Cardinal Arithmetic" ([Sh:g]), with corrections and expanded to include later works. Part B: Corrections to [Sh:g]. Part C: Contains some revised proof and improved theorems. Part D: Contains a list of relevant references.
We study the effects of piece selection principles on cardinal arithmetic (Shelah style). As an application, we discuss questions of Abe and Usuba. In particular, we show that if $λ\geq 2^κ$, then (a) $I_{κ, λ}$ is not $(λ, 2)$-distributive, and (b) $I_{κ, λ}^+ \rightarrow (I_{κ, λ}^+)^2_ω$ does not hold.
We continue the investigations in the author's book on cardinal arithmetic, assuming some knowledge of it. We deal with the cofinality of (S_{<= aleph_0}(kappa), subseteq) for kappa real valued measurable (Section 3), densities of box products (Section 5,3), prove the equality cov(lambda, lambda, theta^+,2)=pp(lambda) in more cases even when cf(lambda)= aleph_0 (Section 1), deal with bounds of pp(lambda) for lambda limit of inaccessible (Section 4) and give proofs to various claims I was sure I had already written but did not find (Section 6).
This paper deals with variety of problems in pcf theory and infinitary combinatorics. We look at normal filters and prc, measures of the size of [lambda]^{<kappa}, pcf-inaccessibility, entangled orders (and narrow Boolean Algebras), measuring prod_{i<kappa}f(i) by a family of ideals and a family of sequences <B_i:i<kappa> with |B_i|<mu_i, and finally we deal with the existence of strongly almost disjoint families.
If cf(kappa) = kappa, kappa^+< cf(lambda) = λ, then there is a stationary subset S of {delta<lambda:cf(delta)=kappa} in I[lambda]. Moreover, we can find <C_delta :delta in S>, C_delta a club of lambda, otp(C_delta)=kappa, guessing clubs and for each alpha<lambda we have: {C_delta \cap alpha: alpha \in nacc(C_delta)} has cardinality <lambda. Also, we prove that e.g. there is a stationary subset of S_{<aleph_1}(lambda) of cardinality cf(S_{<aleph_1}(lambda),subseteq) Then we prove the existence of nice filters when instead being normal filters on omega_1 they are normal filters with larger domai…
The $κ$-density of a cardinal $μ\geκ$ is the least cardinality of a dense collection of $κ$-subsets of $μ$ and is denoted by $\mathcal D(μ,κ)$. The Singular Density Hypothesis (SDH) for a singular cardinal $μ$ of cofinality $cfμ=κ$ is the equation $\mathcal D(μ,κ)=μ^+$. The Generalized Density Hypothesis (GDH) for $μ$ and $λ$ such that $λ\leμ$ is: $\mathcal D(μ,λ)=μ$ if $cfμ\not=cfλ$ and $\mathcal D(μ,λ)=μ^+$ if $cfμ=cfλ$. Density is shown to satisfy Silver's theorem. The most important case is: Theorem 2.6. If $κ=cfκ<θ=cfμ<μ$ and the set of cardinals $λ<μ$ of cofinality $κ$ that satisfy the \…
In this paper, we consider certain cardinals in ZF (set theory without AC, the Axiom of Choice). In ZFC (set theory with AC), given any cardinals C and D, either C <= D or D <= C. However, in ZF this is no longer so. For a given infinite set A consider Seq(A), the set of all sequences of A without repetition. We compare |Seq(A)|, the cardinality of this set, to |P(A)|, the cardinality of the power set of A. What is provable about these two cardinals in ZF? The main result of this paper is that ZF |- for all A: |Seq(A)| not= |P(A)| and we show that this is the best possible result. Furthermore,…
Andrew Wiles' Proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, As Expected, Does Not Require a Large Cardinal Axiom. A Discussion of Colin McLarty's "The Large Structures of Grothendieck Founded on Finite-Order Arithmetic"
We look at an old conjecture of A. Tarski on cardinal arithmetic and show that if a counterexample exists, then there exists one of length omega_1 + omega .
Since being isolated by Viale and Weiss in 2009, the Guessing Model Property has emerged as a particularly prominent and powerful consequence of the Proper Forcing Axiom. In this paper, we investigate connections between variations of the Guessing Model Property and cardinal arithmetic, broadly construed. We improve upon results of Viale and Krueger by proving that a weakening of the Guessing Model Property implies Shelah's Strong Hypothesis. We also prove that, though the Guessing Model Property is known not to put an upper bound on the size of the continuum, it does imply that $2^{ω_1}$ is a…
In this paper we investigate some properties of first order theories which prevent them from having universal models under certain cardinal arithmetic assumptions. Our results give a new syntactical condition, oak property, which is a sufficient condition for a theory not to have universal models in cardinality lambda when certain cardinal arithmetic assumptions implying the failure of GCH (and close to the failure of SCH) hold.
We give an application of our extender based Radin forcing to cardinal arithmetic. Using a preparation forcing and interleaving of Cohen and Levy forcings in the normal Radin sequence we get a model with a power function having a fixed finite gap on all cardinals.
We present a description of rigid models of Presburger arithmetic (i.e., Z-groups). In particular, we show that Presburger arithmetic has rigid models of all infinite cardinalities up to the continuum, but no larger.
We investigate pseudopowers of singular cardinals, and show that deduce some consequences for cardinal arithmetic. For example, we show that in {\sf ZFC} that $$\cov(μ,μ,θ,σ)=\cov(μ,μ,(\cfμ)^+,σ)+\cov(μ,μ,θ,σ^+)$$ whenever $\aleph_1\leqσ=\cf(σ)<\cf(μ)<θ<μ$, and use recent work of Gitik to show that both summands in the equation are required.
We show that some cardinal arithmetic configurations related to the negation of the Shelah Weak Hypothesis and natural from the forcing point of view are impossible.
We prove the following two results. Theorem A: Let alpha be a limit ordinal. Suppose that 2^{|alpha|}<aleph_alpha and 2^{|alpha|^+}<aleph_{|alpha|^+}, whereas aleph_alpha^{|alpha|}>aleph_{|alpha|^+}. Then for all n< omega and for all bounded X subset aleph_{|alpha|^+}, M_n^#(X) exists. Theorem B: Let kappa be a singular cardinal of uncountable cofinality. If {alpha<kappa| 2^alpha=alpha^+} is stationary as well as co-stationary then for all n< omega and for all bounded X subset kappa, M_n^#(X) exists. Theorem A answers a question of Gitik and Mitchell, and Theorem B yields a lower bound for an …
Under some cardinal arithmetic assumptions, we prove that every stationary subset of lambda of a right cofinality has the weak diamond. This is a strong negation of uniformization. We then deal with a weaker version of the weak diamond- colouring restrictions. We then deal with semi- saturated (normal) filters.
We prove that the statement "for every infinite cardinal nu, every graph with list chromatic nu has coloring number at most beth_omega (nu)" proved by Kojman [6] using the RGCH theorem [11] implies the RGCG theorem via a short forcing argument. Similarly, a better upper bound than beth_omega (nu) in this statement implies stronger forms of the RGCH theorem hold, whose consistency and the consistency of their negations are wide open. Thus, the optimality of Kojman's upper bound is a purely cardinal arithmetic problem, and, as discussed below, is hard to decide.
We prove that assuming suitable cardinal arithmetic, if B is a Boolean algebra every homomorphic image of which is isomorphic to a factor, then B has locally small density. We also prove that for an (infinite) Boolean algebra B, the number of subalgebras is not smaller than the number of endomorphisms, and other related inequalities. Lastly we deal with the obtainment of the supremum of the cardinalities of sets of pairwise incomparable elements of a Boolean algebra.
We deal with some pcf investigations mostly motivated by abelian group theory problems and deal their applications to test problems (we expect reasonably wide applications). We prove almost always the existence of aleph_omega-free abelian groups with trivial dual, i.e. no non-trivial homomorphisms to the integers. This relies on investigation of pcf; more specifically, for this we prove that "almost always" there are F subseteq lambda^kappa which are quite free and has black boxes. The "almost always" means that there are strong restrictions on cardinal arithmetic if the universe fails this, t…
