Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 121 5 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
False as printed: separativity alone does not guarantee a new generic filter. A separative forcing order means that if , some is incompatible with . The one-point order is separative vacuously. Its only generic filter is , and this belongs to . Thus no exists in this example.
The natural missing hypothesis is that the nonempty order is an atomless forcing order. Under that hypothesis the intended argument works. Since is a countable transitive model, enumerate externally its dense subsets as . Choose with . Thenis a directed upward-closed filter in an ordered set and meets every . This is the Rasiowa–Sikorski lemma, giving a generic filter over .
If , the set difference would belong to . It is dense: a condition outside is already in ; a condition in has two incompatible stronger conditions, at least one of which cannot be in the directed filter . Genericity would require , a contradiction. ThusThis uses generic filter for an atomless order is new. A forcing atom is precisely the obstruction illustrated by the counterexample; separativity does not remove it.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 121 4 iii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Suppose, towards a contradiction, that . Then is a ground-model set by axiom schema of separation. It is dense. If , it already lies in . If , atomless forcing order structure gives incompatible forcing conditions . Both cannot belong to the directed filter , so at least one is a strengthening of in .
All compatibility and extension quantifiers range over the same ground-model set , so this density argument is also valid internally in the transitive model . Genericity requires , contradicting the definition of . Therefore a generic filter for an atomless order is new:The assumption is essential: a forcing atom determines a ground-model generic filter. For an atom , the conditions compatible with form a generic filter : two such conditions have strengthenings below , which have a common strengthening by the atom property; every dense set has a member below . In a general partial order, need not be the principal filter above .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 121 4 v Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
The Rasiowa–Sikorski lemma constructs a generic filter over each . Every resulting generic extension remains a countable transitive model of ZFC: there are only countably many ground-model names externally. The order has the same elements and ordering at every stage, and atomless forcing order structure is absolute because all its quantifiers are bounded to . Hence the generic filter for an atomless order is new result gives for every .
The increasing union is transitive and contains . If it satisfied Axiom of power set for , there would be a set withChoose with . The next-stage generic filter belongs to and is an actual subset of . This subset assertion is absolute for the transitive set , so . Transitivity of and then give , a contradiction. Thus the power-set failure in an increasing union of generic extensions occurs already at the fixed ground-model order:The stages form an increasing chain, not an elementary chain, so the elementary chain theorem does not assert ZFC for their union.
Let for a fixed atomless forcing order , and . If a set were its internal power set of , choose with . The next generic filter belongs to , so ; transitivity of implies , contradicting generic filter for an atomless order is new. The chain is increasing but need not be an elementary chain.
Separative forcing order 2026-10-06
In standard notation for forcing, an order is separative if implies that some is incompatible with . Separativity does not imply an atomless forcing order: the one-point order is separative and has a forcing atom. Its only generic filter is a ground-model set. Atomlessness is the hypothesis in generic filter for an atomless order is new.