Coherent sequences versus Radin sequences

We attempt to make a connection between the sequences of measures used to define Radin forcing and the coherent sequences of extenders which are the basis of modern inner model theory. We show that in certain circumstances we can read off sequences of measures as defined by Radin from coherent sequences of extenders, and that we can define Radin forcing directly from a coherent extender sequence and a sequence of ordinals; this generalises Mitchell's construction of Radin forcing from a coherent sequence of measures.     

Power function on stationary classes

We show that under certain large cardinal requirements there is a generic extension in which the power function behaves differently on different stationary classes. We achieve this by doing an Easton support iteration of the Radin on extenders forcing.     

On the consistency strength of the proper forcing axiom

In recent work, the second author extended combinatorial principles due to Jech and Magidor that characterize certain large cardinal properties so that they can also hold true for small cardinals. For inaccessible cardinals, these modifications have no effect, and the resulting principles still give the same characterization of large cardinals. We prove that the proper forcing axiom PFA implies these principles hold for ω₂. Using this, we argue to show that any of the known methods for forcing models of PFA from a large cardinal assumption requires a strongly compact cardinal. If one forces PFA using a proper forcing, then we get the optimal result that a supercompact cardinal is necessary.     

Can a large cardinal be forced from a condition implying its negation?

In this note, we provide an affirmative answer to the title question by giving two examples of cardinals satisfying conditions implying they are non-Rowbottom which can be turned into Rowbottom cardinals via forcing. In our second example, our cardinal is also non-Jonsson.

     

Weakly measurable cardinals

In this article, we introduce the notion of weakly measurable cardinal, a new large cardinal concept obtained by weakening the familiar concept of a measurable cardinal. Specifically, a cardinal κ is weakly measurable if for any collection $\mathcal {A}$ containing at most κ⁺ many subsets of κ, there exists a nonprincipal κ‐complete filter on κ measuring all sets in $\mathcal {A}$. Every measurable cardinal is weakly measurable, but a weakly measurable cardinal need not be measurable. Moreover, while the GCH cannot fail first at a measurable cardinal, I will show that it can fail first at a weakly measurable cardinal. More generally, if κ is measurable, then we can make its weak measurability indestructible by the forcing Add(κ, η) for any η while forcing the GCH to hold below κ. Nevertheless, I shall prove that weakly measurable cardinals and measurable cardinals are equiconsistent. © 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim     

Restrictions on forcings that change cofinalities

In this paper we investigate some properties of forcing which can be considered “nice” in the context of singularizing regular cardinals to have an uncountable cofinality. We show that such forcing which changes cofinality of a regular cardinal, cannot be too nice and must cause some “damage” to the structure of cardinals and stationary sets. As a consequence there is no analogue to the Prikry forcing, in terms of “nice” properties, when changing cofinalities to be uncountable.     

More on the Least Strongly Compact Cardinal

We show that it is consistent, relative to a supercompact limit of supercompact cardinals, for the least strongly compact cardinal k to be both the least measurable cardinal and to be > 2^k supercompact.     

Distributive proper forcing axiom and cardinal invariants

In this paper, we study the forcing axiom for the class of proper forcing notions which do not add ω sequence of ordinals. We study the relationship between this forcing axiom and many cardinal invariants. We use typical iterated forcing with large cardinals and analyse certain property being preserved in this process. Lastly, we apply the results to distinguish several forcing axioms.     

Locally-generic Boolean algebras and cardinal sequences

Given a sequence of cardinals of length less than , with each cardinal in the sequence being either or , we construct a -poset (see Defnition 1 below) which, with a natural topology, becomes a locally-compact, Hausdorff, scattered space with cardinal sequence . The algebra of the clopen subsets of its one-point compactification yields, in turn, a superatomic Boolean algebra with as its cardinal sequence. The posets are locallygeneric, that is, they are constructed generically over countable sets. This gives them additional chain properties, specially under Under Martin's Axiom, the construction allows any cardinals in the sequence, provided it has length Finally, we modify a forcing argument of Baumgartner-Shelah [B-S], to build -posets for any given cardinal sequence of length with each cardinal in the sequence being either or . Received September 2, 1998; accepted in final form September 13, 2001.     

Small forcing creates neither strong nor Woodin cardinals

After small forcing, almost every strongness embedding is the lift of a strongness embedding in the ground model. Consequently, small forcing creates neither strong nor Woodin cardinals.

     

Tall cardinals

A cardinal κ is tall if for every ordinal θ there is an embedding j: V → M with critical point κ such that j (κ) > θ and M^κ ? M. Every strong cardinal is tall and every strongly compact cardinal is tall, but measurable cardinals are not necessarily tall. It is relatively consistent, however, that the least measurable cardinal is tall. Nevertheless, the existence of a tall cardinal is equiconsistent with the existence of a strong cardinal. Any tall cardinal κ can be made indestructible by a variety of forcing notions, including forcing that pumps up the value of 2^κ as high as desired. (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Measurable cardinals and good ‐wellorderings

We study the influence of the existence of large cardinals on the existence of wellorderings of power sets of infinite cardinals κ with the property that the collection of all initial segments of the wellordering is definable by a Σ₁‐formula with parameter κ. A short argument shows that the existence of a measurable cardinal δ implies that such wellorderings do not exist at δ‐inaccessible cardinals of cofinality not equal to δ and their successors. In contrast, our main result shows that these wellorderings exist at all other uncountable cardinals in the minimal model containing a measurable cardinal. In addition, we show that measurability is the smallest large cardinal property that imposes restrictions on the existence of such wellorderings at uncountable cardinals. Finally, we generalise the above result to the minimal model containing two measurable cardinals.     

Gap forcing

In this paper, I generalize the landmark Lévy-Solovay Theorem [LévSol67], which limits the kind of large cardinal embeddings that can exist in a small forcing extension, to a broad new class of forcing notions, a class that includes many of the forcing iterations most commonly found in the large cardinal literature. After such forcing, the fact is that every embedding satisfying a mild closure requirement lifts an embedding from the ground model. Such forcing, consequently, can create no new weakly compact cardinals, measurable cardinals, strong cardinals, Woodin cardinals, strongly compact cardinals, supercompact cardinals, almost huge cardinals, or huge cardinals, and so on. My research has been supported in part by grants from the PSC-CUNY Research Foundation and from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. I would like to thank my gracious hosts at Kobe University in Japan for their generous hospitality. This paper follows up an earlier announcement of the main theorem appearing, without technical details, in [Ham99].     

On Shattering,Splitting and Reaping Partitions

In this article we investigate the dual-shattering cardinal ?, the dual-splitting cardinal ?? and the dual-reaping cardinal ??, which are dualizations of the well-known cardinals ?? (the shattering cardinal, also known as the distributivity number of P(ω)/fin), s (the splitting number) and ?? (the reaping number). Using some properties of the ideal ?? of nowhere dual-Ramsey sets, which is an ideal over the set of partitions of ω, we show that add(??) = cov(??) = ?. With this result we can show that ? > ω₁ is consistent with ZFC and as a corollary we get the relative consistency of ? > ?? t, where t is the tower number. Concerning ?? we show that cov(M) ? ?? ?? (where M is the ideal of the meager sets). For the dual-reaping cardinal ?? we get p ?? ? ?? ? ?? (where ?? is the pseudo-intersection number) and for a modified dual-reaping number ??′ we get ??′ ? ?? (where ?? is the dominating number). As a consistency result we get ?? < cov(??).     

Weak Covering at Large Cardinals

We show that weakly compact cardinals are the smallest large cardinals k where k⁺ < k⁺ is impossible provided 0^# does not exist. We also show that if k^+Kc < k⁺ for some k being weakly compact (where K^c is the countably complete core model below one strong cardinal), then there is a transitive set M with M ? ZFC + “there is a strong cardinal”.     

Identity crises and strong compactness III: Woodin cardinals

We show that it is consistent, relative to n ∈ ω supercompact cardinals, for the strongly compact and measurable Woodin cardinals to coincide precisely. In particular, it is consistent for the first n strongly compact cardinals to be the first n measurable Woodin cardinals, with no cardinal above the n^th strongly compact cardinal being measurable. In addition, we show that it is consistent, relative to a proper class of supercompact cardinals, for the strongly compact cardinals and the cardinals which are both strong cardinals and Woodin cardinals to coincide precisely. We also show how the techniques employed can be used to prove additional theorems about possible relationships between Woodin cardinals and strongly compact cardinals. The first author's research was partially supported by PSC-CUNY Grant 66489-00-35 and a CUNY Collaborative Incentive Grant.     

Sacks forcing,Laver forcing,and Martin's axiom

Summary In this paper we study the question assuming MA+CH does Sacks forcing or Laver forcing collapse cardinals? We show that this question is equivalent to the question of what is the additivity of Marczewski's ideals ⁰. We give a proof that it is consistent that Sacks forcing collapses cardinals. On the other hand we show that Laver forcing does not collapse cardinals.Research partially supported by NSF grant 8801139     

Subcompact cardinals, squares, and stationary reflection

We generalise Jensen’s result on the incompatibility of subcompactness with □. We show that α ⁺-subcompactness of some cardinal less than or equal to α precludes ${\square _\alpha }$ , but also that square may be forced to hold everywhere where this obstruction is not present. The forcing also preserves other strong large cardinals. Similar results are also given for stationary reflection, with a corresponding strengthening of the large cardinal assumption involved. Finally, we refine the analysis by considering Schimmerling’s hierarchy of weak squares, showing which cases are precluded by α ⁺-subcompactness, and again we demonstrate the optimality of our results by forcing the strongest possible squares under these restrictions to hold.     

A parallel to the null ideal for inaccessible $$\lambda $$: Part I

It is well known how to generalize the meagre ideal replacing \(\aleph _0\) by a (regular) cardinal \(\lambda > \aleph _0\) and requiring the ideal to be \(({<}\lambda )\)-complete. But can we generalize the null ideal? In terms of forcing, this means finding a forcing notion similar to the random real forcing, replacing \(\aleph _0\) by \(\lambda \). So naturally, to call it a generalization we require it to be \(({<}\lambda )\)-complete and \(\lambda ^+\)-c.c. and more. Of course, we would welcome additional properties generalizing the ones of the random real forcing. Returning to the ideal (instead of forcing) we may look at the Boolean Algebra of \(\lambda \)-Borel sets modulo the ideal. Common wisdom have said that there is no such thing because we have no parallel of Lebesgue integral, but here surprisingly first we get a positive \(=\) existence answer for a generalization of the null ideal for a “mild” large cardinal \(\lambda \)—a weakly compact one. Second, we try to show that this together with the meagre ideal (for \(\lambda \)) behaves as in the countable case. In particular, we consider the classical Cichoń diagram, which compares several cardinal characterizations of those ideals. We shall deal with other cardinals, and with more properties of related forcing notions in subsequent papers (Shelah in The null ideal for uncountable cardinals; Iterations adding no \(\lambda \)-Cohen; Random \(\lambda \)-reals for inaccessible continued; Creature iteration for inaccesibles. Preprint; Bounding forcing with chain conditions for uncountable cardinals) and Cohen and Shelah (On a parallel of random real forcing for inaccessible cardinals. arXiv:1603.08362 [math.LO]) and a joint work with Baumhauer and Goldstern.     

Superstrong and other large cardinals are never Laver indestructible

Superstrong cardinals are never Laver indestructible. Similarly, almost huge cardinals, huge cardinals, superhuge cardinals, rank-into-rank cardinals, extendible cardinals, 1-extendible cardinals, 0-extendible cardinals, weakly superstrong cardinals, uplifting cardinals, pseudo-uplifting cardinals, superstrongly unfoldable cardinals, Σ_n-reflecting cardinals, Σ_n-correct cardinals and Σ_n-extendible cardinals (all for n ≥  3) are never Laver indestructible. In fact, all these large cardinal properties are superdestructible: if κ exhibits any of them, with corresponding target θ, then in any forcing extension arising from nontrivial strategically <κ-closed forcing \({\mathbb{Q} \in V_\theta}\), the cardinal κ will exhibit none of the large cardinal properties with target θ or larger.