English

What is the theory ZFC without power set?

Logic 2015-08-05 v2

Abstract

We show that the theory ZFC-, consisting of the usual axioms of ZFC but with the power set axiom removed-specifically axiomatized by extensionality, foundation, pairing, union, infinity, separation, replacement and the assertion that every set can be well-ordered-is weaker than commonly supposed and is inadequate to establish several basic facts often desired in its context. For example, there are models of ZFC- in which ω1\omega_1 is singular, in which every set of reals is countable, yet ω1\omega_1 exists, in which there are sets of reals of every size n\aleph_n, but none of size ω\aleph_\omega, and therefore, in which the collection axiom sceme fails; there are models of ZFC- for which the Los theorem fails, even when the ultrapower is well-founded and the measure exists inside the model; there are models of ZFC- for which the Gaifman theorem fails, in that there is an embedding j:MNj:M\to N of ZFC- models that is Σ1\Sigma_1-elementary and cofinal, but not elementary; there are elementary embeddings j:MNj:M\to N of ZFC- models whose cofinal restriction j:MjMj:M\to \bigcup j``M is not elementary. Moreover, the collection of formulas that are provably equivalent in ZFC- to a Σ1\Sigma_1-formula or a Π1\Pi_1-formula is not closed under bounded quantification. Nevertheless, these deficits of ZFC- are completely repaired by strengthening it to the theory ZFCZFC^-, obtained by using collection rather than replacement in the axiomatization above. These results extend prior work of Zarach.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1110.2430,
  title  = {What is the theory ZFC without power set?},
  author = {Victoria Gitman and Joel David Hamkins and Thomas A. Johnstone},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1110.2430},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

22 pages; commentary concerning this article can be made at http://jdh.hamkins.org/what-is-the-theory-zfc-without-power-set

R2 v1 2026-06-21T19:18:41.179Z