English

How to have more things by forgetting how to count them

Logic 2020-10-05 v2

Abstract

Cohen's first model is a model of Zermelo--Fraenkel set theory in which there is a Dedekind-finite set of real numbers, and it is perhaps the most famous model where the Axiom of Choice fails. We force over this model to add a function from this Dedekind-finite set to some infinite ordinal κ\kappa. In the case that we force the function to be injective, it turns out that the resulting model is the same as adding κ\kappa Cohen reals to the ground model, and that we have just added an enumeration of the canonical Dedekind-finite set. In the case where the function is merely surjective it turns out that we do not add any reals, sets of ordinals, or collapse any Dedekind-finite sets. This motivates the question if there is any combinatorial condition on a Dedekind-finite set AA which characterises when a forcing will preserve its Dedekind-finiteness or not add new sets of ordinals. We answer this question in the case of "Adding a Cohen subset" by presenting a varied list of conditions each equivalent to the preservation of Dedekind-finiteness. For example, 2A2^A is extremally disconnected, or [A]<ω[A]^{<\omega} is Dedekind-finite.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1910.14480,
  title  = {How to have more things by forgetting how to count them},
  author = {Asaf Karagila and Philipp Schlicht},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1910.14480},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

12 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-23T12:00:53.082Z