Questions tagged [forcing]
Forcing is a method first used to prove the continuum hypothesis is independent of the classical axioms of set theory
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A better way to explain forcing?
Let me begin by formulating a concrete (if not 100% precise) question, and then I'll explain what my real agenda is.
Two key facts about forcing are (1) the definability of forcing; i.e., the ...
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Forcing as a new chapter of Galois Theory?
There is a (very) long essay by Grothendieck with the ominous title La Longue Marche à travers la théorie de Galois (The Long March through Galois Theory). As usual, Grothendieck knew what he was ...
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How to add essentially new knots to the universe?
A knot is an embedding of a circle $S^{1}$ in $3$-dimensional Euclidean space, $\mathbb{R}^3$. Knots are considered equivalent under ambient isotopy. There are two different types of knots, tame and ...
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Forcing as a replacement of induction and diagonal arguments
Let me give some examples motivating the question.
The use of forcing instead of induction: For this consider Cantor's theorem:
Theorem 1. Any two countable dense linear orders $I, J$ without end ...
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What is the dimension of the mathematical universe?
Forcing construction in set theory leads to a new understanding of the mathematical (multi)universe by providing a machinery through which one can construct new models of the universe from the ...
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How far wrong could the Continuum Hypothesis be?
I hear it's consistent with ZFC to have
$$ 2^{\aleph_0} = \aleph_n $$
for any $n = 1, 2, 3, \dots $. How much worse can it get?
More precisely: are there models of ZFC with $2^{\aleph_0} \gt \aleph_n$...
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When does the choice of the generic matter?
It is a somewhat curious phenomenon that, in forcing arguments, one usually doesn't care about any particular properties of the generic filter being used (this isn't strictly true; there are cases ...
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Forcing and Family Contentions: Who wins the disputes?
The famous game-theoretic couple, Alice & Bob, live in the set-theoretic universe, $V$, a model of $ZFC$. Just like many other couples they sometimes argue over a statement, $\sigma$, expressible ...
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How "much" does (Grigorieff) forcing destroy an ultrafilter?
Introduction. I recently revisited Shelah's model without P-points and I was wondering how "badly" Grigorieff forcing destroys ultrafilters, i.e., what kind of properties can survive the destruction ...
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How badly can the GCH fail globally?
It's known that we can have global failures of GCH---for example, where $\forall \lambda(2^\lambda = \lambda^{++})$---given suitable large cardinal axioms.
My question is whether we can have global ...
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A New Continuum Hypothesis (Revised Version)
Define $N_n$ as $n$ th natural number: $N_0=0, N_1=1, N_2=2, ...$.
What happens after exponentiation?
We have the following equation: $2^{N_n}=N_{2^{n}}$.
(Which says: For all finite cardinal $n$ ...
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Set-theoretic forcing over sites?
All texts I have read on set-theoretic independence proofs consider several different sorts of constructions separately, such as Boolean-valued models (equivalently, forcing over posets), permutation ...
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Do choice principles in all generic extensions imply AC in $V$?
It's well-known that not all choice principles are preserved under forcing, e.g. in this answer https://mathoverflow.net/a/77002/109573 Asaf shows the ordering principle can hold in $V$ and fail in a ...
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Scott-Solovay unpublished paper on ``Boolean valued models of set theory''
I have read some papers from 1970$^{th}$, and in some of them, the paper of Scott and Solovay on ``Boolean valued models of set theory'' is given as a main reference, with many references to the ...
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Forcing over models without the axiom of choice
In the vast majority of papers forcing is always developed over ZFC.
Not surprisingly too, since infintary combinatorial principles are often used to prove results based on properties such as chain ...
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Forcing in Homotopy Type Theory
I apologize if this question doesn't make any sense. I'll just go ahead and delete it if that's the case. But the question is just the title. Is there a notion of forcing in homotopy type theory? ...
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Namba forcing and semiproperness
This question is the result of leaving "Proper and Improper Forcing" on my nightstand by accident.
Is the statement "Namba forcing is semiproper" known to be equiconsistent with some more standard ...
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Is every class that does not add sets necessarily added by forcing?
We know there are many situations in which we can force over a model $M$ of GBC to add a class $G$ without adding any sets. That is, the extension $M[G]$ satisfies GBC and has the same sets as $M$. ...
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Two versions of "absolutely ccc"
I have recently been slogging my way through Shelah's "Large continuum, oracles". Essentially from the start there has been a question needling me which I cannot seem to answer.
In the paper, Shelah ...
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Is it consistent with ZFC that no nontrivial forcing notion has automatic mutual genericity?
A nontrivial forcing notion $\newcommand\Q{\mathbb{Q}}\Q$ exhibits
automatic mutual genericity, if whenever $G,H\subseteq\Q$ are
distinct $V$-generic filters (existing, say, in some forcing
extension ...
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Kaplansky's conjecture and Martin's axiom
Recall Kaplansky's conjecture which states that every algebra homomorphism from the Banach algebra C(X) (where X is a compact Hausdorff topological space) into any other Banach algebra, is ...
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Can there be a global linear ordering of the universe without a global well-ordering of the universe?
This question arose in the answers to Asaf Karagila's
question Does ZFC prove that the universe is linearly orderable?. The answer there was that one can have a ZFC model with no global linear ...
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What did Paul Cohen mean by saying that generic sets of natural numbers have "no asymptotic density?"
In Paul Cohen's original 1963 paper on forcing, The independence of the Continuum Hypothesis, published in PNAS, he gives his general proof sketch of how he intends to create a model of ZFC that doesn'...
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Condensed / pyknotic sets in terms of forcing over Boolean-valued models of set theory / multiverse concepts?
Here is one way of saying what a pyknotic set is. Fix an inaccessible cardinal $\kappa$, and let $Proj_\kappa$ be the category of $\kappa$-small, extremally disconnected compact Hausdorff spaces. ...
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Is there an infinitary sentence which is absolutely not second-order expressible?
This is a "forcing-absolute" followup to this question, whose answer was largely unsatisfying. The question is:
Suppose $V=L$. Is there an $\mathcal{L}_{\infty,\omega}$-sentence $\varphi$ ...
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Is Prikry forcing minimal?
Let $M$ be a model of $\sf ZFC$ in which $\kappa$ is a measurable cardinal, and $\cal U$ is a normal measure on $\kappa$. We can define the Prikry forcing (the most simple one) as the poset: $$\Bbb P=\...
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Can we collapse $\omega_1$ to $\omega$ without adding a dominating real?
(Disclaimer: This question was also asked at MSE (https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/71020/can-we-collapse-omega-1-without-adding-a-dominating-real). I'm posting it here because, when I asked it,...
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Preservation of properness
Suppose $\mathbb P$ is a countably closed forcing, and $\mathbb Q$ is a c.c.c. forcing that adds reals. Is $\mathbb P$ still proper in $V^{\mathbb Q}$?
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What ccc forcings add a Suslin tree?
In a comment to Miha's question in Forcing PFA with ccc forcing, I suggested that if such situation is even possible, it might be achieved by screwing with PFA by some ccc forcing (e.g. adding a Cohen ...
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Forcing PFA with ccc forcing
Is it consistent (from suitable large cardinals) that there is a ccc poset which forces PFA?
This seems quite implausible to me. If we could force PFA via ccc forcing, the ground model would have to ...
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Cantor-Bernstein for notions of forcing
For forcing notions $\mathbb{P}$ and $\mathbb{Q}$ let us write $\mathbb{P}\triangleleft\mathbb{Q}$ if forcing with $\mathbb{Q}$ always adds a $\mathbb{P}$-generic filter over $V$. In other words, $\...
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Iterating Neeman's forcing
In the paper, "Forcing with sequences of models of two types," (MR3201836), Neeman claims that, using a supercompact and a weakly compact above, one can force with his pure side conditions ...
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How to make countably closed forcing "nice" without choice
When working over a model $V$ of $ZFC$, countably closed forcings are extremely nice:
If $\mathbb{P}$ is countably closed, then $V[G]$ has no new $\omega$-sequences of elements of $V$. In ...
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Connections between Complexity Theory & Set Theory
Inspired by Joshua Grochow and Iddo Tzameret's answers in a post on http://cstheory.stackexchange.com , I would like to get more references on possible connections between complexity theory and set ...
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A new cardinality living in every forcing extension?
I'm broadly interested in notions of "generic presentability" - when a given object exists in every forcing extension of the universe by some fixed forcing, at least up to the appropriate ...
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Comparing generic versions of $\mathbb{R}$
This question was previously asked and bountied at MSE, unsuccessfully.
I'm currently interested in the behavior of cardinalities in generic extensions of models of $\mathsf{ZF+\neg AC}$, and ...
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Finite support iterations of $\sigma$-centered forcing notions
I am looking for a proof (or better, a reference) of the following fact:
The finite support iteration of $\sigma$-centered forcing notions is again $\sigma$-centered, assuming we iterate less than $(...
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Who proved "sets in every generic are already in the ground model?"
Suppose $\mathbb{P}$ is a notion of forcing in the ground model $V$, and $X$ is a set which is in $V[G]$ for every $\mathbb{P}$-generic filter $G$. Then $X\in V$ already, by a fairly simple (if ...
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$\Sigma^2_1$ and the Continuum Hypothesis
This is a follow up to Will Brian's answer to this recent question. In particular, quoting Brian:
"In fact, Paul Larson has pointed out to me that the statement "$\phi$ and $\phi^{-1}$ are conjugate"...
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Kunen's use of Countable Transitive Models
Hi,
I have a doubt concerning Kunen's exposition of forcing in his classical book (arguably $the$ book on forcing). When dealing with Countable Transitive Models to set up the forcing machinery, ...
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When are two forcing posets "the same"?
Let $B$ and $C$ be complete Boolean algebras. To avoid triviality I may also want them to be atomless. For $b\in B$ nonzero, denote $B\upharpoonright b=\{p\in B:p\leq b\}$, which can be viewed as a ...
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Set-theoretic geology: controlled erosion?
I have to say that after the two last posts by Timothy Chow on Forcing I got so intrigued that I am trying to rethink the little I know about this formidable chapter of mathematics.
I have also to add ...
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Does $0^{\#}$ imply the failure of upward directedness in the set generic universe over $L$?
Question 1. Suppose that $0^{\#}$ exists. Are there set generic filters $g,h$ over $L$ ($g,h \in V$) such that for any $f$ ($\in V$) which is generic over $L$ we have that $L[g] \cup L[h] \not \...
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Which is the more popular approach to forcing in the literature?
There are some interesting questions and answers on the site discussing the different approaches to forcing in set theory, and I understand that the two most important are the ones using countable ...
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Can you have many independent reals?
Working in $\sf ZFC$, is it provable, or at least consistent (say, over $L$), that you have $\aleph_1$ forcings, $\Bbb P_\alpha$ such that:
$\Bbb P_\alpha$ is c.c.c.
$\Bbb P_\alpha$ adds a real which ...
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Existence of a regular subposet which collapses everything except the top cardinal
Suppose $\delta$ is an inaccessible cardinal, and $\mathbb{P}$ is the Levy Collapse $\text{Col}(\kappa, \delta)$ which adds a surjection from $\kappa \to \delta$ (for some regular $\kappa < \delta$)...
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Applications of forcing in model theory
What are the major applications of (set theoretic) forcing in model theory?
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A model of CH +$\lnot \diamondsuit$
All of the models of CH which I know of also satisfy $\diamondsuit$. What is the easiest way to produce a model of CH wherein $\diamondsuit$ is false?
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Philosophy of forcing and ctm
I asked a similar question on SE before and received an answer. Not completely convinced, I decided to ask it here with some modifications. Note: I understand how forcing works and how it proves ...
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What is known about topological groups of countable spread in ZFC?
A topological space has countable spread if every discrete subspace is at most countable.
By Theorem 8.10 in Todorcevic's book "Partition Problems in Topology", PFA implies that each regular space $X$...
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