arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Saharon Shelah.
We prove in ZFC that the Baer-Specker group Z^omega has 2^{aleph_1} non-free pure subgroups of cardinality aleph_1 which are almost disjoint: there is no non-free subgroup embeddable in any pair.
This paper is motivated by the question whether there exists a logic capturing polynomial time computation over unordered structures. We consider several algorithmic problems near the border of the known, logically defined complexity classes contained in polynomial time. We show that fixpoint logic plus counting is stronger than might be expected, in that it can express the existence of a complete matching in a bipartite graph. We revisit the known examples that separate polynomial time from fixpoint plus counting. We show that the examples in a paper of Cai, Furer, and Immerman, when suitably padded, are in choiceless polynomial time yet not in fixpoint plus counting. Without padding, they remain in polynomial time but appear not to be in choiceless polynomial time plus counting. Similar results hold for the multipede examples of Gurevich and Shelah, except that their final version of multipedes is, in a sense, already suitably padded. Finally, we describe another plausible candidate, involving determinants, for the task of separating polynomial time from choiceless polynomial time plus counting.
In two papers we noted that in common practice many algebraic constructions are defined only `up to isomorphism' rather than explicitly. We mentioned some questions raised by this fact, and we gave some partial answers. The present paper provides much fuller answers, though some questions remain open. Our main result says that there is a transitive model of Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory with choice (ZFC) in which every fully definable construction is `weakly natural' (a weakening of the notion of a natural transformation). A corollary is that there are models of ZFC in which some well-known constructions, such as algebraic closure of fields, are not explicitly definable. We also show that there is no model of ZFC in which the explicitly definable constructions are precisely the natural ones.
The paper is concerned with the existence of a universal graph at the successor of a strong limit singular mu of cofinality aleph_0. Starting from the assumption of the existence of a supercompact cardinal, a model is built in which for some such mu there are mu^{++} graphs on mu^+ that taken jointly are universal for the graphs on mu^+, while 2^{mu^+}>> mu^{++} . The paper also addresses the general problem of obtaining a framework for consistency results at the successor of a singular strong limit starting from the assumption that a supercompact cardinal kappa exists. The result on the existence of universal graphs is obtained as a specific application of a more general method.
For suitable groups G we will show that one can add a Boolean algebra B by forcing in such a way that Aut(B) is almost isomorphic to G. In particular, we will give a positive answer to the following question due to J.Roitman: Is aleph_{omega} a possible number of automorphisms of a rich Boolean algebra?
We prove that if lambda is a strong limit singular cardinal and kappa a regular uncountable cardinal < lambda, then NS_{kappa lambda}, the non-stationary ideal over P_{kappa} lambda, is nowhere precipitous. We also show that under the same hypothesis every stationary subset of P_{kappa} lambda can be partitioned into lambda^{< kappa} disjoint stationary sets.
We will show that there is no ZFC example of a set distinguishing between universally null and perfectly meager sets.
We prove the consistency of irr(prod limits_{i<kappa}B_i/D)< prod limits_{i<kappa}irr(B_i)/D, where D is an ultrafilter on kappa and each B_i is a Boolean Algebra. This solves the last problem of this form from the Monk's list of problems, that is number 35. The solution applies to many other properties, e.g., Souslinity. Next, we get similar results with kappa = aleph_1 (easily we cannot have it for kappa=aleph_0) and Boolean Algebras B_i (i< kappa) of cardinality < beth_{omega_1}.
A torsion-free abelian group B of arbitrary rank is called a B_1-group if Bext^1(B,T)=0 for every torsion abelian group T, where Bext^1 denotes the group of equivalence classes of all balanced exact extensions of T by B. It is a long-standing problem whether or not the class of B_1-groups coincides with the class of B_2-groups. A torsion-free abelian group B is called a B_2-group if there exists a continuous well-ordered ascending chain of pure subgroups, 0=B_0 subset B_1 subset ... subset B_alpha subset ... subset B_lambda =B=bigcup_{alpha in lambda} B_alpha such that B_{alpha+1}=B_alpha+G_alpha for every alpha in lambda for some finite rank Butler group G_alpha. Both, B_1-groups and B_2-groups are natural generalizations of finite rank Butler groups to the infinite rank case and it is known that every B_2-group is a B_1-group. Moreover, assuming V=L it was proven that the two classes coincide. Here we demonstrate that it is undecidable in ZFC whether or not all B_1-groups are B_2-groups. Using Cohen forcing we prove that there is a model of ZFC in which there exists a B_1-group that is not a B_2-group.
We show that, consistently, every MAD family has cardinality strictly bigger than the dominating number, that is a > d, thus solving one of the oldest problems on cardinal invariants of the continuum. The method is a contribution to the theory of iterated forcing for making the continuum large.
It is proved undecidable in ZFC + GCH whether every Z-module has a^{perp} {Z}-precover.
We consider the Whitehead problem for principal ideal domains of large size. It is proved, in ZFC, that some p.i.d.'s of size >= aleph_{2} have non-free Whitehead modules even though they are not complete discrete valuation rings.
An infinitary version of the notion of free products has been introduced and investigated by G.Higman. Let G_i (for i in I) be groups and ast_{i in X} G_i the free product of G_i (i in X) for X Subset I and p_{XY}: ast_{i in Y} G_{i}->ast_{i in X} G_{i} the canonical homomorphism for X subseteq Y Subset I. (X Subset I denotes that X is a finite subset of I.) Then, the unrestricted free product is the inverse limit lim (ast_{i in X} G_i, p_{XY}: X subseteq Y Subset I). We remark ast_{i in emptyset} G_i= {e} . We prove: Theorem: Let F be a free group. Then, for each homomorphism h:lim ast G_i-> F there exist countably complete ultrafilters u_0,...,u_m on I such that h = h . p_{U_0 cup ... cup U_m} for every U_0 in u_0, ...,U_m in u_m. If the cardinality of the index set I is less than the least measurable cardinal, then there exists a finite subset X_0 of I and a homomorphism overline {h}: ast_{i in X_0}G_i-> F such that h= overline {h} . p_{X_0}, where p_{X_0}: lim ast G_i->ast_{i in X_0}G_i is the canonical projection.
Let R be a countable, principal ideal domain which is not a field and A be a countable R-algebra which is free as an R-module. Then we will construct an aleph_1-free R-module G of rank aleph_1 with endomorphism algebra End_RG=A . Clearly the result does not hold for fields. Recall that an R-module is aleph_1-free if all its countable submodules are free, a condition closely related to Pontryagin's theorem. This result has many consequences, depending on the algebra A in use. For instance, if we choose A=R, then clearly G is an indecomposable `almost free' module. The existence of such modules was unknown for rings with only finitely many primes like R=Z_{(p)}, the integers localized at some prime p. The result complements a classical realization theorem of Corner's showing that any such algebra is an endomorphism algebra of some torsion-free, reduced R-module G of countable rank. Its proof is based on new combinatorial-algebraic techniques related with what we call rigid tree-elements coming from a module generated over a forest of trees.
We begin with the existence of groups with trivial duals for cardinals aleph_n (n in omega). Then we derive results about strongly aleph_n-free abelian groups of cardinality aleph_n (n in omega) with prescribed free, countable endomorphism ring. Finally we use combinatorial results of [Sh:108], [Sh:141] to give similar answers for cardinals >aleph_omega. As in Magidor and Shelah [MgSh:204], a paper concerned with the existence of kappa-free, non-free abelian groups of cardinality kappa, the induction argument breaks down at aleph_omega. Recall that aleph_omega is the first singular cardinal and such groups of cardinality aleph_omega do not exist by the well-known Singular Compactness Theorem (see [Sh:52]).
The main result is Theorem: Let A be an R-algebra, mu, lambda be cardinals such that |A|<=mu=mu^{aleph_0}<lambda<=2^mu. If A is aleph_0-cotorsion-free or A is countably free, respectively, then there exists an aleph_0-cotorsion-free or a separable (reduced, torsion-free) R-module G respectively of cardinality |G|=lambda with End_RG=A oplus Fin G.
Let chi be the minimum cardinal of a subset of 2^omega that cannot be made convergent by multiplication with a single Toeplitz matrix. By an application of creature forcing we show that s<chi is consistent. We thus answer a question by Vojtas. We give two kinds of models for the strict inequality. The first is the combination of an aleph_2-iteration of some proper forcing with adding aleph_1 random reals. The second kind of models is got by adding delta random reals to a model of MA_{< kappa} for some delta in [aleph_1,kappa). It was a conjecture of Blass that s=aleph_1<chi=kappa holds in such a model. For the analysis of the second model we again use the creature forcing from the first model.
Martin's Axiom does not imply that all automorphisms of P(N)/[N]^{<aleph_0} are somewhere trivial.