Omega-measurable cardinal 2026-10-06
A cardinal is omega-measurable if it carries a countably complete ultrafilter that is a nonprincipal ultrafilter. Countable completeness rules out countable underlying sets. Such a measure is weaker than the cardinal's own full completeness requirement, but the least omega-measurable cardinal is measurable.
Take the least omega-measurable cardinal , with a countably complete ultrafilter on that is nonprincipal. We prove that is -complete. This will give .
Suppose , for , and . Then belongs to . For let be the least with . The pushforward ultrafilter
is a countably complete ultrafilter on ; this uses , so restricts to an ultrafilter on . For each , the fibre is contained in , hence is not in . Thus is nonprincipal. If is finite or countable, countable completeness already rules this out. Otherwise would be an omega-measurable cardinal, contradicting minimality of .
Therefore every intersection of fewer than members of lies in . Since is uncountable, it is a measurable cardinal. This proves that the least omega-measurable cardinal is measurable, even if the originally supplied cardinal carried only a countably complete ultrafilter.