Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 iii Paper 27 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Work in a background model of ZFC. Each structure below satisfies every axiom of ZF except the indicated one and falsifies that axiom; the background model supplies the other consistency direction.
For the Axiom of union, put and use the hereditarily locally small membership modelThe transitive class inherits extensionality and foundation. Definable subsets of its sets remain in it. If , a functional image of has size at most ; every member of that image is already hereditary, so the image belongs to . This verifies replacement, even though its values can have unbounded ranks. Also by the strong limit cardinal property, and each subset of is locally small. This verifies the Axiom of power set. Pairing and infinity follow similarly. Butsince while . This is failure of sumset without failure of replacement or power set.
For the Axiom of power set, use the hereditarily countable sets . This is a transitive class. A countable union of countable transitive closures is countable, so it is closed under pairs, unions and functional images of its countable domains; these facts verify pairing, union and replacement. Separation, foundation and infinity also hold. Every subset of is hereditarily countable, but the full power set is uncountable by Cantor's theorem and cannot be a member of . Since every candidate internal power set would have to contain all those subsets, the power-set axiom fails.
For replacement, take the rank-initial transitive set . A limit rank contains the empty set and is closed under pairs, unions, subsets and power sets; it contains , and foundation and extensionality are inherited. Fix the parameter . The definable mapis internally described by a finite sequence of power-set iterations. Each finite sequence belongs to , so the definition is genuinely functional there. Its range has rank and is not in the structure. Thus this instance of replacement fails.
For extensionality, use the non-extensional membership model with one atom. Start with an atom having no members and build the ordinary cumulative coded sets over it, including a separate empty set. Interpret membership by the contents of a set code and give no members. The two different objects have identical empty extensions. Foundation holds by the code ranks; pure finite ordinals give infinity; pairs, unions, definable subsets and functional ranges have their usual set codes. For unrestricted power set, include the atom as well as all ordinary subset codes: the atom satisfies vacuously for every . This detail is necessary because the formulas here are the unmodified ZF formulas, without a set predicate. The collection still has a set code, so the Axiom of power set holds. All axioms except extensionality are satisfied.
Finally, , the hereditarily finite sets, satisfies every axiom except infinity. Pairs, unions, power sets and subsets of finite sets are finite, and every functional image of a finite domain is finite, so the full replacement schema holds. An inductive set would contain every finite von Neumann ordinal and would be infinite, whereas every member of is finite. Hence infinity fails.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2006 iii Paper 25 11 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Use the bounded successor characterization of finite ordinals. Let assert that is transitive, each of its members is transitive, and any two members are equal or comparable by membership. This is a bounded first-order formula; foundation makes its linear membership order well-founded, so it is precisely the Von Neumann ordinal predicate. Defineand putFor an ordinal, having a greatest member says exactly . The displayed definition makes no reference to an infinite inductive set or to ; all quantifiers are bounded within the candidate and its members. Occurrences of can also be expressed as , so no unbounded quantifier is hidden in empty-set notation.
Every usual natural number satisfies this predicate, by induction: it is a finite ordinal, and every nonzero initial segment is a successor. Conversely, suppose an ordinal is not a usual natural number. Ordinal comparability gives . If , it has no greatest member, contradicting . If , then has no greatest member, contradicting the corresponding bounded requirement on members of . Hence holds exactly for the usual natural numbers. The axiom of infinity and separation therefore collect this class as the usual set . This is a bounded definition of membership in the natural-number class; it does not claim that the infinite set itself can be produced without the infinity axiom.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2006 iii Paper 25 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
A partial computable function is the function computed by a finite program, with an undefined value when its computation never terminates. A total computable function terminates on every input. Fix an effective enumeration of the partial computable functions, with a universal partial computable function . Composition, primitive recursion and unbounded minimization give a machine-independent description of this class. Unbounded minimization is allowed to diverge. The S-m-n theorem permits parameters in a program to be specialized effectively: an algorithm described uniformly in has an index obtained computably from .
The halting set is computably enumerable: simulate all computations in parallel and enumerate each index whose diagonal computation terminates. It is not a computable set. Otherwise the program which terminates exactly when the proposed decision procedure says its own diagonal computation does not terminate gives a contradiction. There is also no effective enumeration consisting exactly of all total computable functions: from such an enumeration the total computable function differs from every listed function. Thus the effective enumeration of partial programs cannot be replaced by a decidable catalogue of total ones.
For the Rice theorem, let be a nontrivial property of partial computable functions, depending on the computed function rather than the program text. First suppose the nowhere-defined function is not in , and choose a program computing some . Uniformly in , define a program which, on input , first waits for to terminate and then runs the computation of . The S-m-n theorem gives a computable index map , andConsequently a decision procedure for membership in would decide the halting set. If the nowhere-defined function belongs to , apply the same argument to its complement. Every nontrivial extensional property of partial computable functions has an undecidable index set. Syntactic properties of program descriptions are outside this assertion, and the theorem concerns unrestricted program indices, not merely an assumed list of terminating programs.
Here is an explicit Jockusch triple coloring computing the halting set. Choose computable increasing finite stages with union . For , putThis is a computable colouring. An infinite monochromatic set cannot have color : fix its first element and choose two later elements beyond the stage at which stabilizes. Their triple has color .
Suppose is infinite and homogeneous of color . To decide whether using , find with , and then with . For every above , homogeneity gives . Such are unbounded, so . Testing therefore decides . Hence every homogeneous set computes the halting set, and there is no infinite recursive monochromatic set. The infinity qualification is essential: finite homogeneous sets are recursive.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2006 iii Paper 25 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Work in a ground first-order model of set theory satisfying ZF, and let be a definable bijection of its universe, whose inverse is also definable. Write and replace membership byIn this Rieger-Bernays permutation model, an object having prescribed extension is represented by . The Axiom schema of replacement in the ground model guarantees that images of sets under and are sets. The axiom of extensionality follows from injectivity of ; the new empty set is , and the new pair of is .
For the Axiom of union and Axiom of power set, representatives are respectivelyIndeed, is an -subset of exactly when . Translate every first-order formula by replacing membership with membership in . Ground separation then forms each desired subextension of , and ground replacement forms each functional image; applying supplies its representative. To verify the axiom of infinity, define by ground recursionThen is an -inductive set. Thus every ZF axiom except possibly the Axiom of foundation survives.
Interchange two distinct objects and , fixing everything else. Then , so is a Quine atom: internally . The nonempty set has no member disjoint from itself, violating the Axiom of foundation. The original membership model satisfies that axiom. Foundation is therefore relatively independent of the other ZF axioms.
A full Rieger-Bernays permutation model of a choice model still satisfies the axiom of choice: choose an old member of each nonempty extension and encode the resulting choice graph with the new ordered-pair operations. To obtain failure of choice, an additional restriction by symmetries is necessary.
Start instead with ZFC and use the definable permutation interchanging every with . These transpositions are disjoint and produce an infinite set of Quine atoms. Inside the resulting membership model build the cumulative universe over , closing at successive stages under sets of previously constructed objects, represented by . Atomic objects are kept as the designated base objects; for . Every permutation of extends recursively to an automorphism of this universe, with the atomic self-loops fixed by the recursive convention.
An object has finite support if every permutation fixing some finite pointwise fixes it. Retain the objects which have finite support and whose members recursively also have finite support, interpreting the atomic self-loops as the base case. This is the hereditarily finite-supported Quine-atom model. It is transitive for the new membership relation. Extensionality is inherited. Pairs and unions have supports contained in the union of the finitely many relevant supports. For a supported set , the collection of all retained subsets of is a ground set, by the full model's power set axiom, and is fixed by every permutation fixing a support of . Its members are retained, so this collection supplies the internal power set. A first-order formula with retained parameters is invariant under their common stabilizer. Consequently its definable subset of , and the range of a functional relation on , have that same finite support; ground separation and replacement first ensure that they are sets. The pure natural-number hierarchy supplies infinity. These arguments verify all of ZF except Axiom of foundation, which fails at the Quine atoms.
The family of all two-element subsets is retained and has empty support. If it had a retained choice function , choose two distinct Quine atoms outside a finite support of . The transposition of fixes and fixes the unordered pair , but moves either possible value . This is impossible. Thus ZF without Foundation has both choice models and models in which Choice fails, relative to the usual consistency assumption. The construction also explains why twisting membership alone was insufficient.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2006 iii Paper 25 5 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
All assertions of independence below are relative consistency assertions. We construct structures satisfying the other ZF axioms but falsifying the indicated axiom; an ordinary model of ZF supplies the positive side. The convenient ground theory is ZFC, which has the same consistency strength as ZF by the constructible universe theorem.
For the Axiom of union, put and use the hereditarily locally small membership modelIt is a transitive class. The condition requires each individual set in the membership ancestry to have size below ; it does not require its entire transitive closure to have size below . Extensionality and foundation are inherited. Pairs and subsets of members remain in the class, giving pairing and separation, and witnesses infinity. For , the actual also belongs to : if , then by the strong-limit property, while every subset of and every member further below it remains locally small. This verifies the full power set axiom. If an internally definable functional relation has domain , ground replacement, applied to the relativized first-order formula, gives its range . Since and every value is already in , its range is also locally small. Thus every replacement instance holds.
However, belongs to : its members have cardinalities , and their members are smaller still. Its actual union is , of cardinality , which is not in . Transitivity makes any internal union witness equal to this actual union. Hence Union fails while all the other ZF axioms hold.
For the Axiom of power set, use the hereditarily countable sets in the ground choice universe. This is transitive and contains . Pairs, subsets and unions have countable transitive closure. For replacement, a functional image of a countable domain is countable, and the union of countably many countable transitive closures is countable; hence that image is again hereditarily countable. These observations, with inherited extensionality and foundation, verify all the remaining axioms. Every real, viewed as a subset of , belongs to . A power-set witness for would therefore contain every such real, but a hereditarily countable set has only countably many members, whereas is uncountable by Cantor's theorem. Power set fails.
For the Axiom schema of replacement, use with actual membership. This limit-rank structure contains and is closed under pairs, unions and power sets: every relevant finite increase in rank stays below . A separated subset has rank no higher than that of the original set. Extensionality and foundation are inherited. The internally definable functionis obtained by successive power-set operations starting with the parameter . Each finite iteration, including its finite history, belongs to the structure. Its range has rank and is not an element of . Thus the replacement instance for this first-order formula fails, although every other ZF axiom holds.
For the axiom of extensionality, take the well-founded cumulative set universe over two distinct urelements, and forget the predicate distinguishing urelements from sets. Each urelement has no members, just as the ordinary empty set has no members, so extensionality fails. Every other axiom survives in this pure membership language. Pairing, union, separation and replacement are witnessed by the corresponding ordinary sets of urelements and sets; foundation follows from their well-founded ranks, and the pure supplies infinity. Here foundation is written with “has a member” as its nonemptiness antecedent, and disjointness means having no common member. Formulations using inequality to one designated empty object are not equivalent after removing extensionality. There is also one necessary adjustment to power set: an urelement is vacuously a subset of every object because it has no members. Thus the power-set witness for is the ordinary set of all usual subsets of its extension, together with both urelements. This is still a set, and contains exactly the objects satisfying the unrestricted subset first-order formula. Consequently the countermodel falsifies Extensionality alone, without silently weakening Power set to sets only.
Finally, the hereditarily finite sets satisfy extensionality, foundation, pairing, union, power set and separation. Every functional image of a finite domain is a finite set of hereditarily finite objects, hence also belongs to , giving all replacement instances. No finite set contains and is closed under successor: it would then contain every finite von Neumann ordinal. Infinity fails while the remaining axioms hold.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 ia Paper 4 2E ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
The stated formula is Cassini's identity. It holds for , and the recurrence giveswhich is the negative of the expression at index . This proves the identity by induction.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 iii Paper 347 1 a Solution Created 2026-09-29 Updated 2026-10-05
At distance , isotropic luminosity produces radiative acceleration in material of opacity . In fully ionized hydrogen, one Electron supplies a Thomson scattering cross-section for approximately one proton mass of material, so . Balancing radiation against the Newtonian gravitational field of the black hole gives the Eddington luminosityBelow this luminosity gravity can confine optically thin ionized hydrogen; above it, electron scattering alone accelerates the gas outward.
An electron--positron pair has mass and total scattering cross-section , so its opacity is . ThereforeThe limit is lower because the radiative force per unit inertial mass is larger in a pair plasma.
For a cloud with arbitrary constant opacity per unit mass,Suppose the luminosity jumps to a constant while the cloud is at rest at . With , its radial acceleration isMultiplication by and integration from to infinity gives conservation of energyThis result assumes that and remain constant and that the cloud stays optically thin.
NFU has a unary predicate for sets, atoms have no members, extensionality applies to sets, and comprehension applies to every stratified formula. A stratification assigns integer types to variables so that equality uses equal types and requires . A unary set predicate adds no type difference.
Start with the actual set structure . This structure satisfies extensionality and every pure-membership separation instance: the subset defined in a set of rank below still has rank below . We do not assert that satisfies replacement or all of ZFC. Expand it by Skolem functions. In it use the sequence of rank objects , . For two such objects in sequence order, we havewith quantifiers in . The second statement holds because every subset of belongs to , and the later rank is at least .
Introduce constants , , and require them to be order indiscernibles in the Skolem language, satisfying these two assertions whenever . Also require for every ; this fixed rank object is first-order definable in . Every finite part of these requirements together with is satisfiable: color finite increasing tuples of the original rank sequence by the truth values of the finitely many formulas mentioned, and use Ramsey's theorem to get a homogeneous subsequence. The rank assertions hold for every increasing tuple there. The compactness theorem gives a model of the full theory. In its Skolem hull generated by the , the integer shift extends to an automorphism with , by the term-transport proof of the Ehrenfeucht-Mostowski theorem. Thus still satisfies extensionality and all pure-membership separation instances, andThis is a set-sized first-order model; no satisfaction predicate for a proper-class universe is being assumed.
Externally let . The automorphism bijects onto . Interpret a typed structure with sort equal to . At sort , declare a set exactly when ; otherwise it is an atom. Define adjacent-sort membership byThe guard is necessary: a typed atom might have some ordinary -members in , and those must not become its typed members. Set-extensionality follows from extensionality in , because the ordinary members of a typed set all lie in . For any typed formula on sort , its quantifiers can be restricted to the corresponding , its set predicates replaced by subset assertions, and its memberships replaced by the guarded relation. This is an ordinary pure-membership formula of with finitely many parameters. Separation gives its extension , and the displayed closure assertion gives . It is therefore a typed set witnessing comprehension. The automorphism shifts these sorted domains and preserves the set flags and guarded memberships.
Collapse the types onto . DefineObjects not satisfying have no -members. If two sets have the same -members, their images under are subsets of with the same ordinary members, so are equal by extensionality of ; injectivity of gives equality of the original objects.
To verify every stratified comprehension instance, assign a variable its stratification type and translate its value to . Equality is preserved. An atomic translates to the guarded adjacent-sort membership because ; the unary predicate translates to . Induction on formulas, using the domain bijections for quantifiers, preserves truth. If the free variable has type , typed comprehension produces its extension , with . Put . Then holds, and for every ,This is exactly the required NFU set. No formula containing the external automorphism has been used in a separation or comprehension scheme; only transports values after the pure formula is formed.
The construction also permits the usual infinity requirement. The ordinary and its successor graph are definable in , hence fixed by , and lie below , so belong to all the required domains. Under , the members of are still its ordinary -members. The new Kuratowski pair satisfiesSince , membership of this pair in under is equivalent to . Thus is an internal injection of into itself omitting zero, giving a Dedekind-infinite set.
Zermelo set theory 2026-10-14
The usual set theory with extensionality, empty set, pairing, union, power set, infinity and full separation, before adjoining replacement. Modern presentations often include foundation; the convention should be specified when comparing theories. Class-theoretic variants add classes and class comprehension, rather than treating proper classes as sets.