Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-logic-and-set-theory-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2008/b/7/1/solution
Past exam of the logic and set theory course of the University of Oxford 2008 B 7 1 Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-31
The Cantor-Schröder-Bernstein theorem states that injections and imply the existence of a bijection . Here is the injection-chain formal proof, so no fixed-point theorem is needed. Defineand setThe second branch is defined because implies , hence , and the inverse there is unique by injectivity of . Each branch is injective. A collision between branches would have with and , implying , a contradiction. Thus is injective.
For surjectivity let . If , then . If , it is not in , so it belongs to some . There is with ; injectivity of gives . This proves that is a bijection and completes the theorem without the axiom of choice.
For the comparison of cardinalities take the power set of as the reference set. Its cardinality is by definitionThe remaining parts give explicit injections or bijections comparing each requested set with this one.
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