Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 19 6 iii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Start with a model of ZFC+, which also satisfies Generalized continuum hypothesis, and add one Cohen real by the countable forcing of finite binary sequences. Its countable chain condition for forcing preserves cardinals. For every infinite ground cardinal , a nice forcing name for a subset of is specified by countable forcing antichains of a countable forcing. The number of such forcing names is at mostin the ground model. The ground subsets already supply the preserved lower bound . Thus the extension still satisfies for every infinite cardinal, namely Generalized continuum hypothesis.
The Cohen real is not in the ground model: for each ground real it is dense to disagree at a new coordinate. Forcing leaves the ordinals unchanged, and constructible levels are absolute, so the extension has the same constructible universe as the ground model. The new real is therefore not constructible. We obtainThe forcing theorem makes this a relative-consistency construction. Thus, if ZFC is consistent, ZFC+Generalized continuum hypothesis does not prove . This is the one-Cohen-real preservation of GCH argument, not a claim that every arbitrary GCH-preserving forcing leaves unchanged.