English

A Statement in Combinatorics that is Independent of ZFC (an exposition)

Combinatorics 2012-01-06 v1

Abstract

It is known that, for any finite coloring of the naturals, there exists distinct naturals e1,e2,e3,e4e_1,e_2,e_3,e_4 that are the same color such that e1+e2=e3+e4e_1+e_2=e_3+e_4. Consider the following statement which we denote S: For every 0\aleph_0-coloring of the reals there exists distinct reals e1,e2,e3,e4e_1,e_2,e_3,e_4 such that e1+e2=e3+e4e_1+e_2=e_3+e_4?} Is it true? Erdos showed that S is equivalent to the negation of the Continuum Hypothesis, and hence S is indepedent of ZFC. We give an exposition of his proof and some modern observations about results of this sort.

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Cite

@article{arxiv.1201.1207,
  title  = {A Statement in Combinatorics that is Independent of ZFC (an exposition)},
  author = {Stephen Fenner and William Gasarch},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1201.1207},
  year   = {2012}
}

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12 pages