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.     

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     

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.     

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.     

Bounding the consistency strength of a five element linear basis

In [13] it was demonstrated that the Proper Forcing Axiom implies that there is a five element basis for the class of uncountable linear orders. The assumptions needed in the proof have consistency strength of at least infinitely many Woodin cardinals. In this paper we reduce the upper bound on the consistency strength of such a basis to something less than a Mahlo cardinal, a hypothesis which can hold in the constructible universe L. A crucial notion in the proof is the saturation of an Aronszajn tree, a statement which may be of broader interest. We show that if all Aronszajn trees are saturated and PFA(ω ₁) holds, then there is a five element basis for the uncountable linear orders. We show that PFA(ω ₂) implies that all Aronszajn trees are saturated and that it is consistent to have PFA(ω ₁) plus every Aronszajn tree is saturated relative to the consistency of a reflecting Mahlo cardinal. Finally we show that a hypothesis weaker than the existence of a Mahlo cardinal is sufficient to force the existence of a five element basis for the uncountable linear orders. The first author acknowledges a fellowship granted by the French ministry of research. The research of the second author was partially supported by the Centre de Rercerca Matemàtica of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and by NSF Grant DMS-0401603. The second author would also like to thank the third and fourth authors for bringing him to Boise and Paris respectively for further discussions. The third author was supported by NSF grants DMS-0401893 and DMS-0200671. The second and fourth authors would like to thank CIRM in Luminy for hosting them during a petit group de travaille, and to thank the others participants, Ralf Schindler and Ernest Schimmerling, for discussions on this topic.     

A cardinal preserving extension making the set of points of countable V cofinality nonstationary

Assuming large cardinals we produce a forcing extension of V which preserves cardinals, does not add reals, and makes the set of points of countable V cofinality in κ⁺ nonstationary. Continuing to force further, we obtain an extension in which the set of points of countable V cofinality in ν is nonstationary for every regular ν ≥ κ⁺. Finally we show that our large cardinal assumption is optimal. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant no. DMS-0094174.     

Extender-based Radin forcing

We define extender sequences, generalizing measure sequences of Radin forcing.

Using the extender sequences, we show how to combine the Gitik-Magidor forcing for adding many Prikry sequences with Radin forcing.

We show that this forcing satisfies a Prikry-like condition, destroys no cardinals, and has a kind of properness.

Depending on the large cardinals we start with, this forcing can blow the power of a cardinal together with changing its cofinality to a prescribed value. It can even blow the power of a cardinal while keeping it regular or measurable.

     

Inner models with large cardinal features usually obtained by forcing

We construct a variety of inner models exhibiting features usually obtained by forcing over universes with large cardinals. For example, if there is a supercompact cardinal, then there is an inner model with a Laver indestructible supercompact cardinal. If there is a supercompact cardinal, then there is an inner model with a supercompact cardinal κ for which 2 ^κ ?=?κ ⁺, another for which 2 ^κ ?=?κ ⁺⁺ and another in which the least strongly compact cardinal is supercompact. If there is a strongly compact cardinal, then there is an inner model with a strongly compact cardinal, for which the measurable cardinals are bounded below it and another inner model W with a strongly compact cardinal κ, such that ${H^{V}_{\kappa^+} \subseteq {\rm HOD}^W}$ . Similar facts hold for supercompact, measurable and strongly Ramsey cardinals. If a cardinal is supercompact up to a weakly iterable cardinal, then there is an inner model of the Proper Forcing Axiom and another inner model with a supercompact cardinal in which GCH?+?V?=?HOD holds. Under the same hypothesis, there is an inner model with level by level equivalence between strong compactness and supercompactness, and indeed, another in which there is level by level inequivalence between strong compactness and supercompactness. If a cardinal is strongly compact up to a weakly iterable cardinal, then there is an inner model in which the least measurable cardinal is strongly compact. If there is a weakly iterable limit δ of <δ-supercompact cardinals, then there is an inner model with a proper class of Laver-indestructible supercompact cardinals. We describe three general proof methods, which can be used to prove many similar results.     

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.     

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.     

Distributive proper forcing axiom and a left-right dichotomy of Cichon's diagram

In this paper, we study distributive proper forcing axiom(DPFA) and prove its consistency with a dichotomy of the Cichon's diagram, relative to certain large cardinal assumption. Namely, we evaluate the cardinal invariants in Cichon's diagram with the first two uncountable cardinals in the way that the left-hand side has the least possible cardinality while the right-hand side has the largest possible value, and preserve the evaluation along the way of forcing DPFA.     

Distributive proper forcing axiom and a left-right dichotomy of Cichoń’s diagram

In this paper, we study distributive proper forcing axiom (DPFA) and prove its consistency with a dichotomy of the Cichoń’s diagram, relative to certain large cardinal assumption. Namely, we evaluate the cardinal invariants in Cichoń’s diagram with the first two uncountable cardinals in the way that the left-hand side has the least possible cardinality while the right-hand side has the largest possible value, and preserve the evaluation along the way of forcing DPFA.     

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].     

Indestructibility and stationary reflection

If κ < λ are such that κ is a strong cardinal whose strongness is indestructible under κ ‐strategically closed forcing and λ is weakly compact, then we show that A = {δ < κ | δ is a non‐weakly compact Mahlo cardinal which reflects stationary sets} must be unbounded in κ. This phenomenon, however, need not occur in a universe with relatively few large cardinals. In particular, we show how to construct a model where no cardinal is supercompact up to a Mahlo cardinal in which the least supercompact cardinal κ is also the least strongly compact cardinal, κ 's strongness is indestructible under κ ‐strategically closed forcing, κ 's supercompactness is indestructible under κ ‐directed closed forcing not adding any new subsets of κ, and δ is Mahlo and reflects stationary sets iff δ is weakly compact. In this model, no strong cardinal δ < κ is indestructible under δ ‐strategically closed forcing. It therefore follows that it is relatively consistent for the least strong cardinal κ whose strongness is indestructible under κ ‐strategically closed forcing to be the same as the least supercompact cardinal, which also has its supercompactness indestructible under κ ‐directed closed forcing not adding any new subsets of κ (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Indestructibility,HOD, and the Ground Axiom

Let φ₁ stand for the statement V = HOD and φ₂ stand for the Ground Axiom. Suppose T_i for i = 1, …, 4 are the theories “ZFC + φ₁ + φ₂,” “ZFC + ¬φ₁ + φ₂,” “ZFC + φ₁ + ¬φ₂,” and “ZFC + ¬φ₁ + ¬φ₂” respectively. We show that if κ is indestructibly supercompact and λ > κ is inaccessible, then for i = 1, …, 4, A_i = _df{δ < κ∣δ is an inaccessible cardinal which is not a limit of inaccessible cardinals and V_δ?T_i} must be unbounded in κ. The large cardinal hypothesis on λ is necessary, as we further demonstrate by constructing via forcing four models in which A_i = ?? for i = 1, …, 4. In each of these models, there is an indestructibly supercompact cardinal κ, and no cardinal δ > κ is inaccessible. We show it is also the case that if κ is indestructibly supercompact, then V_κ?T₁, so by reflection, B₁ = _df{δ < κ∣δ is an inaccessible limit of inaccessible cardinals and V_δ?T₁} is unbounded in κ. Consequently, it is not possible to construct a model in which κ is indestructibly supercompact and B₁ = ??. On the other hand, assuming κ is supercompact and no cardinal δ > κ is inaccessible, we demonstrate that it is possible to construct a model in which κ is indestructibly supercompact and for every inaccessible cardinal δ < κ, V_δ?T₁. It is thus not possible to prove in ZFC that B_i = _df{δ < κ∣δ is an inaccessible limit of inaccessible cardinals and V_δ?T_i} for i = 2, …, 4 is unbounded in κ if κ is indestructibly supercompact. © 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim     

The least weakly compact cardinal can be unfoldable,weakly measurable and nearly $${\theta}$$-supercompact

We prove from suitable large cardinal hypotheses that the least weakly compact cardinal can be unfoldable, weakly measurable and even nearly \({\theta}\)-supercompact, for any desired \({\theta}\). In addition, we prove several global results showing how the entire class of weakly compactcardinals, a proper class, can be made to coincide with the class of unfoldable cardinals, with the class of weakly measurable cardinals or with the class of nearly \({\theta_\kappa}\)-supercompact cardinals \({\kappa}\), for nearly any desired function \({\kappa\mapsto\theta_\kappa}\). These results answer several questions that had been open in the literature and extend to these large cardinals the identity-crises phenomenon, first identified by Magidor with the strongly compact cardinals.     

Local sentences and Mahlo cardinals

Local sentences were introduced by Ressayre in [6] who proved certain remarkable stretching theorems establishing the equivalence between the existence of finite models for these sentences and the existence of some infinite well ordered models. Two of these stretching theorems were only proved under certain large cardinal axioms but the question of their exact (consistency) strength was left open in [4]. Here we solve this problem, using a combinatorial result of J. H. Schmerl [7]. In fact, we show that the stretching principles are equivalent to the existence of n ‐Mahlo cardinals for appropriate integers n. This is done by proving first that for every integer n, there is a local sentence φ_n having well ordered models of order type τ, for every infinite ordinal τ > ω which is not an n ‐Mahlo cardinal. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Simple formulas defining complicated sets

We consider the question whether large cardinal axioms imply that certain complicated sets cannot be defined by simple formulas. More precisely, we ask whether the existence of larger large cardinals is compatible with the existence of a well-ordering of the real numbers that is definable by a Σ₁-formula that uses a single ordinal as a parameter. This note presents results by Ralf Schindler, Philipp Schlicht and the author showing that the existence of a well-ordering of the reals that is definable by a Σ₁-formula with parameter ω₁ is compatible with the existence of a Woodin cardinal and incompatible with the existence of a Woodin cardinal with a measurable cardinal above it. Moreover, a similar result holds for Σ₁-formulas using certain large cardinals as a parameter. (© 2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Smoke and mirrors: Combinatorial properties of small cardinals equiconsistent with huge cardinals

Since the work of Godel and Cohen many questions in infinite combinatorics have been shown to be independent of the usual axioms for mathematics, Zermelo Frankel Set Theory with the Axiom of Choice (ZFC). Attempts to strengthen the axioms to settle these problems have converged on a system of principles collectively known as Large Cardinal Axioms.These principles are linearly ordered in terms of consistency strength. As far as is currently known, all natural independent combinatorial statements are equiconsistent with some large cardinal axiom. The standard techniques for showing this use forcing in one direction and inner model theory in the other direction.The conspicuous open problems that remain are suspected to involve combinatorial principles much stronger than the large cardinals for which there is a current fine-structural inner model theory for.The main results in this paper show that many standard constructions give objects with combinatorial properties that are, in turn, strong enough to show the existence of models with large cardinals are larger than any cardinal for which there is a standard inner model theory.     

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.