Consistency Strength
In mathematical logic, two theories are equiconsistent if the consistency of one theory implies the consistency of the other theory, and vice versa. In this case, they are, roughly speaking, "as consistent as each other". In general, it is not possible to prove the absolute consistency of a theory ''T''. Instead we usually take a theory ''S'', believed to be consistent, and try to prove the weaker statement that if ''S'' is consistent then ''T'' must also be consistent—if we can do this we say that ''T'' is ''consistent relative to S''. If ''S'' is also consistent relative to ''T'' then we say that ''S'' and ''T'' are equiconsistent. Consistency In mathematical logic, formal theories are studied as mathematical objects. Since some theories are powerful enough to model different mathematical objects, it is natural to wonder about their own consistency. Hilbert proposed a program at the beginning of the 20th century whose ultimate goal was to show, using mathematical methods ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mathematical Logic
Mathematical logic is the study of logic, formal logic within mathematics. Major subareas include model theory, proof theory, set theory, and recursion theory. Research in mathematical logic commonly addresses the mathematical properties of formal systems of logic such as their expressive or deductive power. However, it can also include uses of logic to characterize correct mathematical reasoning or to establish foundations of mathematics. Since its inception, mathematical logic has both contributed to and been motivated by the study of foundations of mathematics. This study began in the late 19th century with the development of axiomatic frameworks for geometry, arithmetic, and Mathematical analysis, analysis. In the early 20th century it was shaped by David Hilbert's Hilbert's program, program to prove the consistency of foundational theories. Results of Kurt Gödel, Gerhard Gentzen, and others provided partial resolution to the program, and clarified the issues involved in pr ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Peano Arithmetic
In mathematical logic, the Peano axioms, also known as the Dedekind–Peano axioms or the Peano postulates, are axioms for the natural numbers presented by the 19th century Italian mathematician Giuseppe Peano. These axioms have been used nearly unchanged in a number of metamathematical investigations, including research into fundamental questions of whether number theory is consistent and complete. The need to formalize arithmetic was not well appreciated until the work of Hermann Grassmann, who showed in the 1860s that many facts in arithmetic could be derived from more basic facts about the successor operation and induction. In 1881, Charles Sanders Peirce provided an axiomatization of natural-number arithmetic. In 1888, Richard Dedekind proposed another axiomatization of natural-number arithmetic, and in 1889, Peano published a simplified version of them as a collection of axioms in his book, ''The principles of arithmetic presented by a new method'' ( la, Arithmetice ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Higher Infinite
''The Higher Infinite: Large Cardinals in Set Theory from their Beginnings'' is a monograph in set theory by Akihiro Kanamori, concerning the history and theory of large cardinals, infinite sets characterized by such strong properties that their existence cannot be proven in Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory (ZFC). This book was published in 1994 by Springer-Verlag in their series Perspectives in Mathematical Logic, with a second edition in 2003 in their Springer Monographs in Mathematics series, and a paperback reprint of the second edition in 2009 (). Topics Not counting introductory material and appendices, there are six chapters in ''The Higher Infinite'', arranged roughly in chronological order by the history of the development of the subject. The author writes that he chose this ordering "both because it provides the most coherent exposition of the mathematics and because it holds the key to any epistemological concerns". In the first chapter, "Beginnings", the material includes ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Akihiro Kanamori
is a Japanese-born American mathematician. He specializes in set theory and is the author of the monograph on large cardinal property, large cardinals, ''The Higher Infinite''. He has written several essays on the history of mathematics, especially set theory. Kanamori graduated from California Institute of Technology and earned a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge (King's College, Cambridge, King's College). He is a professor of mathematics at Boston University. With Matthew Foreman he is the editor of the ''Handbook of Set Theory'' (2010). Selected publications * A. Kanamori, Menachem Magidor, M. MagidorThe evolution of large cardinal axioms in set theory in: ''Higher set theory'' (Proc. Conf., Math. Forschungsinst., Oberwolfach, 1977), Lecture Notes in Mathematics, 669, Springer, 99–275. * Robert Solovay, R. M. Solovay, W. N. Reinhardt, A. KanamoriStrong axioms of infinity and elementary embeddings ''Annals of Mathematical Logic'', 13(1978), 73–116. * A. Kan ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Large Cardinal Property
In the mathematical field of set theory, a large cardinal property is a certain kind of property of transfinite cardinal numbers. Cardinals with such properties are, as the name suggests, generally very "large" (for example, bigger than the least α such that α=ωα). The proposition that such cardinals exist cannot be proved in the most common axiomatization of set theory, namely ZFC, and such propositions can be viewed as ways of measuring how "much", beyond ZFC, one needs to assume to be able to prove certain desired results. In other words, they can be seen, in Dana Scott's phrase, as quantifying the fact "that if you want more you have to assume more". There is a rough convention that results provable from ZFC alone may be stated without hypotheses, but that if the proof requires other assumptions (such as the existence of large cardinals), these should be stated. Whether this is simply a linguistic convention, or something more, is a controversial point among distinct philo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Weakly Compact Cardinal
In mathematics, a weakly compact cardinal is a certain kind of cardinal number introduced by ; weakly compact cardinals are large cardinals, meaning that their existence cannot be proven from the standard axioms of set theory. (Tarski originally called them "not strongly incompact" cardinals.) Formally, a cardinal κ is defined to be weakly compact if it is uncountable and for every function ''f'': º 2 → there is a set of cardinality κ that is homogeneous for ''f''. In this context, º 2 means the set of 2-element subsets of κ, and a subset ''S'' of κ is homogeneous for ''f'' if and only if either all of 'S''sup>2 maps to 0 or all of it maps to 1. The name "weakly compact" refers to the fact that if a cardinal is weakly compact then a certain related infinitary language satisfies a version of the compactness theorem; see below. Every weakly compact cardinal is a reflecting cardinal, and is also a limit of reflecting cardinals. This means also that weakly compact ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mahlo Cardinal
In mathematics, a Mahlo cardinal is a certain kind of large cardinal number. Mahlo cardinals were first described by . As with all large cardinals, none of these varieties of Mahlo cardinals can be proven to exist by ZFC (assuming ZFC is consistent). A cardinal number \kappa is called strongly Mahlo if \kappa is strongly inaccessible and the set U = \ is stationary in κ. A cardinal \kappa is called weakly Mahlo if \kappa is weakly inaccessible and the set of weakly inaccessible cardinals less than \kappa is stationary in \kappa. The term "Mahlo cardinal" now usually means "strongly Mahlo cardinal", though the cardinals originally considered by Mahlo were weakly Mahlo cardinals. Minimal condition sufficient for a Mahlo cardinal * If κ is a limit ''ordinal'' and the set of regular ordinals less than κ is stationary in κ, then κ is weakly Mahlo. The main difficulty in proving this is to show that κ is regular. We will suppose that it is not regular and construct a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Aronszajn Tree
In set theory, an Aronszajn tree is a tree of uncountable height with no uncountable branches and no uncountable levels. For example, every Suslin tree is an Aronszajn tree. More generally, for a cardinal ''κ'', a ''κ''-Aronszajn tree is a tree of height ''κ'' in which all levels have size less than ''κ'' and all branches have height less than ''κ'' (so Aronszajn trees are the same as \aleph_1-Aronszajn trees). They are named for Nachman Aronszajn, who constructed an Aronszajn tree in 1934; his construction was described by . A cardinal ''κ'' for which no ''κ''-Aronszajn trees exist is said to have the tree property (sometimes the condition that ''κ'' is regular and uncountable is included). Existence of κ-Aronszajn trees KÅ‘nig's lemma states that \aleph_0-Aronszajn trees do not exist. The existence of Aronszajn trees (=\aleph_1-Aronszajn trees) was proven by Nachman Aronszajn, and implies that the analogue of KÅ‘nig's lemma does not hold for uncountable trees. Th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Inaccessible Cardinal
In set theory, an uncountable cardinal is inaccessible if it cannot be obtained from smaller cardinals by the usual operations of cardinal arithmetic. More precisely, a cardinal is strongly inaccessible if it is uncountable, it is not a sum of fewer than cardinals smaller than , and \alpha < \kappa implies . The term "inaccessible cardinal" is ambiguous. Until about 1950, it meant "weakly inaccessible cardinal", but since then it usually means "strongly inaccessible cardinal". An uncountable cardinal is weakly inaccessible if it is a regular weak limit cardinal. It is strongly inaccessible, or just inaccessible, if it is a regular strong limit cardinal (this is equivalent to the definition given above). Some authors do not require weakly and strongly ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Kurepa Tree
In set theory, a Kurepa tree is a tree (''T'', <) of height ω1, each of whose levels is at most countable, and has at least ℵ2 many branches. This concept was introduced by . The existence of a Kurepa tree (known as the Kurepa hypothesis, though Kurepa originally conjectured that this was false) is consistent with the axioms of ZFC: Solovay showed in unpublished work that there are Kurepa trees in Gödel's [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Large Cardinal
In the mathematical field of set theory, a large cardinal property is a certain kind of property of transfinite cardinal numbers. Cardinals with such properties are, as the name suggests, generally very "large" (for example, bigger than the least α such that α=ωα). The proposition that such cardinals exist cannot be proved in the most common axiomatization of set theory, namely ZFC, and such propositions can be viewed as ways of measuring how "much", beyond ZFC, one needs to assume to be able to prove certain desired results. In other words, they can be seen, in Dana Scott's phrase, as quantifying the fact "that if you want more you have to assume more". There is a rough convention that results provable from ZFC alone may be stated without hypotheses, but that if the proof requires other assumptions (such as the existence of large cardinals), these should be stated. Whether this is simply a linguistic convention, or something more, is a controversial point among distinct philo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Axiom Of Determinacy
In mathematics, the axiom of determinacy (abbreviated as AD) is a possible axiom for set theory introduced by Jan Mycielski and Hugo Steinhaus in 1962. It refers to certain two-person topological games of length ω. AD states that every game of a certain type is determined; that is, one of the two players has a winning strategy. Steinhaus and Mycielski's motivation for AD was its interesting consequences, and suggested that AD could be true in the smallest natural model L(R) of a set theory, which accepts only a weak form of the axiom of choice (AC) but contains all real and all ordinal numbers. Some consequences of AD followed from theorems proved earlier by Stefan Banach and StanisÅ‚aw Mazur, and Morton Davis. Mycielski and StanisÅ‚aw Åšwierczkowski contributed another one: AD implies that all sets of real numbers are Lebesgue measurable. Later Donald A. Martin and others proved more important consequences, especially in descriptive set theory. In 1988, John R. Steel an ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |