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It is known that Laver's ground model definability theorem doesn’t hold for all class forcing notions. That is, if $M$ satisfies ZFC then $M$ is not necessarily definable in $M[G]$, a class forcing extension of $M$. The following is an instructive instance of this fact but I’m not able to understand the proof.

Let $P$ be the Easton support class product forcing over $L$ that adds a Cohen subset to every regular cardinal and let $G\times H$ be $P\times P$-generic over $L$. Consider the model $L[G]$, which is a ground model of $L[G][H]$. The idea is to show that $L[G]$ cannot be definable in $L[G][H]$ by parameters. Suppose $a$ is any set in $L[G][H]$ and suppose toward contradiction that $\varphi (x,a)$ defines the relation $x\in L[G]$ in $L[G][H]$, forced by some condition $p\in P\times P$. Now I would like to define an automorphism $\pi: P\times P\rightarrow P\times P$ such that $\pi (p)=p$ and $\pi (\dot a)=\dot a$ ($\dot a$ is a name for $a$). Moreover, in order to obtain a contradiction we require that $L[\pi (G)]\neq L[G]$ but the formula $\varphi (x,a)$ also define $L[\pi (G)]$, which is absurd.

So my question is: how can be defined the desired automorphism $\pi$?

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    $\begingroup$ Since $P \times P$ has the Ord-c.c. (all antichains are sets, which in particular implies that this forcing behaves quite nicely, e.g. the Forcing relation is definable and the Forcing theorem holds) there exists a regular $\alpha$ such that $p \in P\restriction \alpha \times P\restriction \alpha$ and $\dot{a}$ is a $ P\restriction \alpha \times P\restriction \alpha$-name. Now we define an automorphism on $\mathbb{C}_\alpha \times \mathbb{C}_\alpha $ such that $\pi(p_1,p_2):=(p_2, p_1)$. Now $\pi$ fixes $p$ and $\dot{a}$, but $\pi(G(\alpha))=H(\alpha)$. $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 28, 2021 at 23:31
  • $\begingroup$ What is $C_\alpha \times C_\alpha$? $\endgroup$
    – Seba Thei
    Commented Mar 1, 2021 at 6:32
  • $\begingroup$ Cohen forcing on $\alpha$ squared, which is obviously a complete subforcing of $P \times P$, and $G(\alpha) \times H(\alpha) \subseteq \mathbb{C}_\alpha \times \mathbb{C}_\alpha$ is the generic filter added by $G \times H$. $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 1, 2021 at 20:05

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