English

Boundedly finite-to-one functions

Logic 2025-09-23 v4 Combinatorics

Abstract

A function is boundedly finite-to-one if there is a natural number kk such that each point has at most kk inverse images. In this paper, we prove in ZF\mathsf{ZF} (i.e., the Zermelo--Fraenkel set theory without the axiom of choice) several results concerning this notion, among which are the following: (1) For each infinite set AA and natural number nn, there is no boundedly finite-to-one function from S(A)\mathcal{S}(A) to Sn(A)\mathcal{S}_{\leq n}(A), where S(A)\mathcal{S}(A) is the set of all permutations of AA and Sn(A)\mathcal{S}_{\leq n}(A) is the set of all permutations of AA moving at most nn points. (2) For each infinite set AA, there is no boundedly finite-to-one function from B(A)\mathcal{B}(A) to fin(A)\mathrm{fin}(A), where B(A)\mathcal{B}(A) is the set of all partitions of AA such that every block is finite and fin(A)\mathrm{fin}(A) is the set of all finite subsets of AA.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2407.10183,
  title  = {Boundedly finite-to-one functions},
  author = {Xiao Hu and Guozhen Shen},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2407.10183},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

8 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-28T17:40:17.319Z