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It is well-known that Grothendieck toposes and realizability toposes (for different reasons) are models of Intuitionistic Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory. Therefore both Andrej and Todd showed in their answers (in essentially different way) that Cantor–Bernstein–Schroeder cannot be proved in IZF.

Of course, this does not mean that Cantor–Bernstein–Schroeder property is incompatible with constructive mathematics --- it just shows that IZF is too weak to prove CBS. Therefore, a complementary question could be: what are the implications of IZF+CBS; does IZF+CBS make the logic collapse to the boolean case?

If I am not mistaken, the answer is no, and the counterexample is constructed below. However, I shall start with a negative observation.

Let $\Omega$ be a Heyting algebra with countable unions. An element $v \in \Omega$ is complementable if there exists an element $w \in \Omega$ such that $v \vee w = 1$ and $v \wedge w = 0$.

We say that $\Omega$ is a boolean algebra if its every element is a finite union of complementable elements (equivalently, if every element is complementable).

We say that $\Omega$ is a pro-boolean algebra if its every element is a countable union of complementable elements.

The claim is that every elementary topos with countable colimits satisfying Cantor–Bernstein–Schroeder propery is pro-boolean (i.e. its subobject classifier is a pro-boolean algebra).

Let $v \colon V \rightarrow 1$ be a "truth" value (a monomorphism into terminal object). We shall construct two objects $X = \coprod_{\mathbb{N}} 1$ and $Y = V \sqcup X$. There are obvious monomorphisms ${\iota_X}\colon{X}\rightarrow{Y}$ given by the coproduct injection, and ${v \sqcup \mathit{id}}\colon{Y}\rightarrow{X}$. Therefore, by Cantor–Bernstein–Schroeder there is an isomorphism ${b}\colon{Y}\rightarrow{X}$. Since coproducts in a topos are extensive, we may divide each component ${\iota_0}\colon V \rightarrow{Y}$, ${\iota_k}\colon 1 \rightarrow{Y}$ of the coproduct $Y$ along $b$ through coproduct's injections ${\iota_l} \colon 1 \rightarrow{X}$ obtaining elements $\alpha_{k,l}$ such that $Y \approx \coprod_k \coprod_l \alpha_{k,l} \approx \coprod_l \coprod_k \alpha_{k,l}$ and $b = \coprod_l b_l$ with each ${b_l}\colon{\coprod_l \alpha_{l,k}}\rightarrow{1}$ being an isomorphism (using again extensivity of coproducts and the fact that pullback of an iso is iso). Because unions in a topos are effective (and coproducts are disjoint) $1 \approx \coprod_l \alpha_{l,k} = \bigcup_l \alpha_{l,k}$ and so each $\alpha_{l,k}$ is complemented by $\bigcup_{x \neq l} \alpha_{x,k}$. Since every subterminal value can sit in exactly one way in the terminal object, $V = \bigcup_l \alpha_{l,0}$ is a countable disjoint union of complementable elements.

(We cannot get more from this construction; for example in the category of sheaves over rational numbers with the usual topology, $\coprod_{\mathbb{N}} 1 \approx V \sqcup \coprod_{\mathbb{N}} 1$ for (non-complementable) truth value $V$ corresponding to the open ball $(-1, 1)$; unfortunately there are other objects in this category that can serve as counterexamples for CBS. Let me also point that the standard procedure of constructing an isomorphism from two monomorphisms would not work in this case. However, by the above argument it is clear that such an isomorphism may be constructed for any pro-boolean topos. The solution is to not shift uniformly the whole $V$ (or its pseudocomplement), but to move each of (countably many) complementable parts of $V$ separately.)


For a positive result, consider set: $$\mathcal{D} = \lbrace 0, 1, \frac12, \frac13, \frac14, \dotsc\rbrace$$ with topology inherited from $\mathbb{R}$ and construct the category $\mathit{Sh}(\mathcal{D})$ of sheaves over $\mathcal{D}$. Every open set in $\mathcal{D}$ can be build from singletons $\lbrace\frac1n\rbrace$ and a set of the form $[0, \frac1k]$.

Let $F, G \colon \mathcal{D}^{op} \rightarrow \mathbf{Set}$ be any sheaves and assume there are monomorphisms $m \colon F \rightarrow G$ and $n \colon G \rightarrow F$. A monomorphism between sheaves is an injection on its each component, therefore by CBS theorem for sets $F(U) \approx G(U)$ for every open set $U$. Let $\phi_U \colon F(U) \approx G(U)$ be a collection of such isomorphisms. We shall construct an isomorphism $\alpha \colon F \rightarrow G$ between sheaves inductively:

  • $\lambda_{[0, 1]} = \phi_{[0, 1]}$

  • for every nonempty $F(\lbrace\frac1k\rbrace)$ choose an element $1_{\frac1k} \in F(\lbrace\frac1k\rbrace)$; if $F(\lbrace\frac1k\rbrace)$ is empty then $\lambda_{[0, \frac1{k+1}]} = \phi_{[0, \frac1{k+1}]}$, otherwise $\lambda_{[0, \frac1{k+1}]} = G([0, \frac1{k+1}] \subset [0, \frac1{k}]) \circ h_{\frac1k}$, where $h_{\frac1k} \colon F([0, \frac1{k+1}]) \rightarrow F([0, \frac1{k}])$ is the unique morphism to the product $F([0, \frac1{k}]) = F([0, \frac1{k+1}]) \times F(\lbrace\frac1k\rbrace)$ induced by $F([0, \frac1{k+1}]) \overset{!}\rightarrow 1 \overset{1_{\frac1k}}\rightarrow F(\lbrace\frac1k\rbrace)$ and the identity on $F([0, \frac1{k+1}])$

  • similarly, for every nonempty $F([0, \frac1{k+1}])$ choose an element $1_{[0, \frac1{k+1}]} \in F([0, \frac1{k+1}])$; if $F([0, \frac1{k+1}])$ is empty then $\lambda_{\lbrace\frac1{k}\rbrace} = \phi_{\lbrace\frac1{k}\rbrace}$, otherwise $\lambda_{\lbrace\frac1{k}\rbrace} = G(\lbrace\frac1{k}\rbrace \subset [0, \frac1{k}]) \circ h_{{[0, \frac1{k+1}]}}$

  • if $U$ is a disjoint union of the form $[0, \frac1k] \sqcup \bigcup_i\lbrace\frac{1}{n_i}\rbrace$, where $[0, \frac1k]$ is the largest interval contained in $U$, then $\lambda_{U} = \lambda_{[0, \frac1k]} \times \prod_i \lambda_{\lbrace\frac{1}{n_i}\rbrace}$, where the products are determined by structures of the sheaves.

In the second and third step we have chosen the components of $\lambda$ to be upward compatible, and in the fourth step the naturality condition follows from the universal property of products. Thus $F \approx G$.

[EDIT: Let me argue that $\phi_U$ may be chosen in such a way that each $\lambda_U$ is really an isomorphism. Assume, that all $F(\lbrace \frac1k\rbrace)$ are nonempty. Define $\mathit{colim}F([0, \frac1k])$ to be the colimit of the diagram: $$F([0, 1]) \rightarrow F([0, \frac12]) \rightarrow \cdots \rightarrow F([0, \frac1k]) \rightarrow \cdots $$ We have: $$(\mathit{colim}_kF([0, \frac1k])) \times (\prod_i F(\lbrace\frac1i\rbrace)) \approx F([0, 1]) \times \mathit{colim}\_k \prod\_{i > k} F(\lbrace\frac1i\rbrace) \approx F([0,1])$$ and similarly for $G$. Since in a locally presentable category monomorphisms are stable under directed colimits, both: $$\mathit{colim}F([0, \frac1k]) \overset{\mathit{colim}\left(m_{[0, \frac1k]}\right)}\rightarrow \mathit{colim}G([0, \frac1k])$$ and: $$\mathit{colim}F([0, \frac1k]) \overset{\mathit{colim}\left(n_{[0, \frac1k]}\right)}\leftarrow \mathit{colim}G([0, \frac1k])$$ are monomorphisms, thus by CBS for sets $\mathit{colim}F([0, \frac1k]) \overset{\phi_0}\approx \mathit{colim}G([0, \frac1k])$. Therefore, $\phi_{[0, 1]}$ may be written as $\phi_0 \times \prod \phi_{\lbrace\frac1k\rbrace}$. Likewise every $\phi_{[0, \frac1k]}$. ]

(BTW, I think we are not really that far from the inverse of the above theorem, but that is for another story...)