Generic filter

Last updated

In the mathematical field of set theory, a generic filter is a kind of object used in the theory of forcing, a technique used for many purposes, but especially to establish the independence of certain propositions from certain formal theories, such as ZFC. For example, Paul Cohen used forcing to establish that ZFC, if consistent, cannot prove the continuum hypothesis, which states that there are exactly aleph-one real numbers. In the contemporary re-interpretation of Cohen's proof, it proceeds by constructing a generic filter that codes more than reals, without changing the value of .

Formally, let P be a partially ordered set, and let F be a filter on P; that is, F is a subset of P such that:

  1. F is nonempty
  2. If p, q  P and p  q and p is an element of F, then q is an element of F (F is closed upward)
  3. If p and q are elements of F, then there is an element r of F such that r  p and r  q (F is downward directed)

Now if D is a collection of dense open subsets of P, in the topology whose basic open sets are all sets of the form {q | q  p} for particular p in P, then F is said to be D-generic if F meets all sets in D; that is,

for all E D.

Similarly, if M is a transitive model of ZFC (or some sufficient fragment thereof), with P an element of M, then F is said to be M-generic, or sometimes generic over M, if F meets all dense open subsets of P that are elements of M.

See also

Related Research Articles

In mathematics, the continuum hypothesis is a hypothesis about the possible sizes of infinite sets. It states:

There is no set whose cardinality is strictly between that of the integers and the real numbers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cardinal number</span> Size of a possibly infinite set

In mathematics, cardinal numbers, or cardinals for short, are a generalization of the natural numbers used to measure the cardinality (size) of sets. The cardinality of a finite set is a natural number: the number of elements in the set. The transfinite cardinal numbers, often denoted using the Hebrew symbol (aleph) followed by a subscript, describe the sizes of infinite sets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cardinality</span> Definition of the number of elements in a set

In mathematics, the cardinality of a set is a measure of the "number of elements" of the set. For example, the set contains 3 elements, and therefore has a cardinality of 3. Beginning in the late 19th century, this concept was generalized to infinite sets, which allows one to distinguish between different types of infinity, and to perform arithmetic on them. There are two approaches to cardinality: one which compares sets directly using bijections and injections, and another which uses cardinal numbers. The cardinality of a set is also called its size, when no confusion with other notions of size is possible.

In the mathematical discipline of set theory, forcing is a technique for proving consistency and independence results. It was first used by Paul Cohen in 1963, to prove the independence of the axiom of choice and the continuum hypothesis from Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aleph number</span> Infinite cardinal number

In mathematics, particularly in set theory, the aleph numbers are a sequence of numbers used to represent the cardinality of infinite sets that can be well-ordered. They were introduced by the mathematician Georg Cantor and are named after the symbol he used to denote them, the Hebrew letter aleph.

In mathematical logic, and particularly in its subfield model theory, a saturated modelM is one that realizes as many complete types as may be "reasonably expected" given its size. For example, an ultrapower model of the hyperreals is -saturated, meaning that every descending nested sequence of internal sets has a nonempty intersection.

In mathematics, a real closed field is a field F that has the same first-order properties as the field of real numbers. Some examples are the field of real numbers, the field of real algebraic numbers, and the field of hyperreal numbers.

In mathematics, a Grothendieck universe is a set U with the following properties:

  1. If x is an element of U and if y is an element of x, then y is also an element of U.
  2. If x and y are both elements of U, then is an element of U.
  3. If x is an element of U, then P(x), the power set of x, is also an element of U.
  4. If is a family of elements of U, and if I is an element of U, then the union is an element of U.

In the mathematical field of set theory, Martin's axiom, introduced by Donald A. Martin and Robert M. Solovay, is a statement that is independent of the usual axioms of ZFC set theory. It is implied by the continuum hypothesis, but it is consistent with ZFC and the negation of the continuum hypothesis. Informally, it says that all cardinals less than the cardinality of the continuum, , behave roughly like . The intuition behind this can be understood by studying the proof of the Rasiowa–Sikorski lemma. It is a principle that is used to control certain forcing arguments.

In set theory, the cardinality of the continuum is the cardinality or "size" of the set of real numbers , sometimes called the continuum. It is an infinite cardinal number and is denoted by or .

In mathematics, set-theoretic topology is a subject that combines set theory and general topology. It focuses on topological questions that are independent of Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory (ZFC).

In set theory, a branch of mathematical logic, Martin's maximum, introduced by Foreman, Magidor & Shelah (1988) and named after Donald Martin, is a generalization of the proper forcing axiom, itself a generalization of Martin's axiom. It represents the broadest class of forcings for which a forcing axiom is consistent.

In axiomatic set theory, the Rasiowa–Sikorski lemma is one of the most fundamental facts used in the technique of forcing. In the area of forcing, a subset E of a poset is called dense in P if for any pP there is eE with ep. If D is a family of dense subsets of P, then a filter F in P is called D-generic if

In the mathematical discipline of set theory, a cardinal characteristic of the continuum is an infinite cardinal number that may consistently lie strictly between , and the cardinality of the continuum, that is, the cardinality of the set of all real numbers. The latter cardinal is denoted or . A variety of such cardinal characteristics arise naturally, and much work has been done in determining what relations between them are provable, and constructing models of set theory for various consistent configurations of them.

In mathematics a group is a set together with a binary operation on the set called multiplication that obeys the group axioms. The axiom of choice is an axiom of ZFC set theory which in one form states that every set can be wellordered.

This is a glossary of set theory.

In mathematical set theory, Baumgartner's axiom (BA) can be one of three different axioms introduced by James Earl Baumgartner.

In order theory and model theory, branches of mathematics, Cantor's isomorphism theorem states that every two countable dense unbounded linear orders are order-isomorphic. It is named after Georg Cantor, and can be proved by the back-and-forth method sometimes attributed to Cantor, but Cantor's original proof only used the "going forth" half of this method.

References