Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-axiomatic-set-theory-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2011/3/a/solution
Past exam of the axiomatic set theory course of the University of Oxford 2011 3 a Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-31
Use the usual cardinal arithmetic with the axiom of choice. The König theorem for cardinal numbers states that for any index set and cardinal numbers ,Represent the cardinal numbers as initial ordinals. Let and . There is an injection : send to the function whose th coordinate is and whose other coordinates are zero. The unique nonzero coordinate identifies , and its value identifies . All values are allowed because .
For any proposed surjection , its th row has at most elements, soChoose to be the least omitted ordinal. The function belongs to and differs from at coordinate , for every . Thus is not surjective. Cardinal comparison now gives the strict inequality. If , the conclusion is , also valid.
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