English

Generalizing Hartogs' Trichotomy Theorem

Logic 2008-04-07 v1

Abstract

A celebrated argument of F. Hartogs (1915) deduces the Axiom of Choice from the hypothesis of comparability for any pair of cardinals. We show how each of a sequence of seemingly much weaker hypotheses suffices. Fixing a finite number k>1k>1, the Axiom of Choice follows if merely any family of kk cardinals contains at least one comparable pair.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0804.0673,
  title  = {Generalizing Hartogs' Trichotomy Theorem},
  author = {David Feldman and Mehmet Orhon and Andreas Blass},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0804.0673},
  year   = {2008}
}

Comments

8 pages with an appendix by Andreas Blass

R2 v1 2026-06-21T10:27:38.537Z