arXiv subjects

Benjamin Siskind

Publications and source records attributed to Benjamin Siskind.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Ultrapowers of determinacy models as iteration trees on HOD

In the 1990s, Steel and Woodin showed that under large cardinal hypotheses, the HOD of $L(\mathbb R)$ admits a fine-structural analysis. Although this theorem sheds light on various problems in descriptive set theory, the fine-structural representations of many fundamental objects of determinacy theory are still unknown. For example, Woodin asked whether the ultrapower of HOD by the closed unbounded filter on $\omega_1$ is given by an iteration tree on HOD according to its fine-structural extender sequence and canonical iteration strategy. In this paper, we give a positive answer to Woodin's question, not only for the closed unbounded filter but for any ultrafilter on an ordinal. The key tool that enables the solution of Woodin's problem is a recent advance in inner model theory: the Steel--Schlutzenberg theory of normalizing iteration trees, which allows us to represent HOD and its ultrapowers as normal iterates of a single countable mouse. Despite our results, the precise structure of the iteration trees that lead from HOD into its ultrapowers remains a mystery.

math.LO↗

arXiv2025

The uniqueness of the core model

The Jensen-Steel core model is a canonical inner model which plays a fundamental role in the meta-mathematics of set theory. Its definition depends on exactly which hierarchy of fine-structural models of set theory, premice, one uses. Each such hierarchy involves somewhat arbitrary decisions and working with different hierarchies ostensibly leads to different versions of the core model. We show that in some contexts, abstract properties of the core model uniquely determine it; that is, there is at most one inner model with these properties.

math.LO↗

arXiv2023

Part 1 of Martin's Conjecture for order-preserving and measure-preserving functions

Martin's Conjecture is a proposed classification of the definable functions on the Turing degrees. It is usually divided into two parts, the first of which classifies functions which are not above the identity and the second of which classifies functions which are above the identity. Slaman and Steel proved the second part of the conjecture for Borel functions which are order-preserving (i.e. which preserve Turing reducibility). We prove the first part of the conjecture for all order-preserving functions. We do this by introducing a class of functions on the Turing degrees which we call "measure-preserving" and proving that part 1 of Martin's Conjecture holds for all measure-preserving functions and also that all non-trivial order-preserving functions are measure-preserving. Our result on measure-preserving functions has several other consequences for Martin's Conjecture, including an equivalence between part 1 of the conjecture and a statement about the structure of the Rudin-Keisler order on ultrafilters on the Turing degrees.

math.LO↗

arXiv2022

Full normalization for mouse pairs

We develop the theory of meta-iteration trees, that is, iteration trees whose base "model" is itself an ordinary iteration tree. We prove a comparison theorem for meta-iteration strategies parallel to the one for ordinary iteration strategies, and use it to show that the iteration strategy component of a mouse pair condenses to itself under weak tree embeddings. These constitute a class of embeddings between iteration trees that is significantly larger than the class of embeddings mentioned in the definition of mouse pair. We then use this very strong hull condensation property of mouse pairs to show that every iterate of a mouse pair is an iterate via a single $\lambda$-tight, normal iteration tree, and that the associated tail strategies are independent of how the iterate was reached.

math.LO↗