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For all ordinals $\alpha ,\beta ,\gamma$,This follows by transfinite induction on $\gamma$ from the recursive definition of ordinal addition.

A binary operation is commutative if $a\ast b=b\ast a$ for every pair in its domain. A particular pair may commute even when the operation is not commutative. For example, ordinal addition and ordinal multiplication are not generally commutative.

Ordinal multiplication is defined recursively byfor nonzero limit ordinal $\lambda$. It is associative and left-distributive over ordinal addition, but generally neither commutative nor right-distributive.

The recursive definition of ordinal addition is $\alpha +0=\alpha$, $\alpha +(\beta +1)=(\alpha +\beta )+1$, and $\alpha +\lambda ={\sup }_{\beta <\lambda }(\alpha +\beta )$ for a nonzero limit ordinal $\lambda$. The synthetic definition is the order type of the ordered disjoint union of a copy of $\alpha$ followed by a copy of $\beta$.

For the synthetic operation, adding the empty order does nothing, adding a successor appends one final point, and concatenation with a limit order is the increasing union of the initial concatenations with all its proper initial segments. Their order types have supremum ${\sup }_{\beta <\lambda }(\alpha +\beta )$. Thus the synthetic operation satisfies the recursive equations. Transfinite induction gives uniqueness of the recursively defined operation, proving equivalence.

The recursive definitions of ordinal multiplication and ordinal exponentiation areThe last equation in each line is for nonzero limit $\lambda$. In particular the convention $0^0=1$ belongs to this recursive definition.

The first assertion is false: $1<2$, but $1+\omega =2+\omega =\omega$. The second is true. In the concatenation definition of ordinal addition, the copy of $\alpha$ is a proper initial segment of the copy of $\beta$ when $\alpha <\beta$, so $\gamma +\alpha$ is a proper initial segment of $\gamma +\beta$.

A suitable relative condensation lemma fixes the base pointwise. Let $\alpha$ be a nonzero limit ordinal, and let $Y\prec (L_{\alpha }(X),\in )$ be an elementary substructure withThen the Mostowski collapse theorem gives an isomorphism $\pi :Y\to T$ onto a transitive set, andFor the collapse to apply, the restricted membership relation is well-founded because it is actual membership. It is extensional: if two members of $Y$ differ, an element distinguishing them in $L_{\alpha }(X)$ can be chosen in $Y$ by elementary substructure structure. Since $X$ is transitive and all its members are in $Y$, transfinite induction on their rank of a set shows that $\pi$ fixes every member of $X$, and then $\pi (X)=X$.

By the preceding relative constructible level recognition, $L_{\alpha }(X)\models \Phi (X)$. Elementary substructure agreement transfers this to $Y$, and the collapse isomorphism transfers it to $T$. Thus $T\models \Phi (X)$ and $T=L_{\beta }(X)$ for a nonzero limit ordinal $\beta$.

For the bound, let $\rho =X\cap \mathrm{Ord}$. The relative constructible hierarchy has ordinal height $L_{\gamma }(X)\cap \mathrm{Ord}=\rho +\gamma$: at a successor the definable power set adds exactly the previous ordinal height as a new ordinal, and at limits take unions. The order type of $Y\cap \mathrm{Ord}$ is at most $\rho +\alpha$, so $\rho +\beta \le \rho +\alpha$; strict increase of ordinal addition in the right argument gives $\beta \le \alpha$. The requirement $X\subseteq Y$ is essential to this version: merely having $X\in Y$ need not make the collapse fix the base.

The first assertion is false: $\boxed{1+\omega =\omega <\omega +1}$. Thus ordinal addition is not commutative.

For ordinals, the inductive definition of ordinal addition isThe synthetic definition takes a well-order of type $\alpha$, followed by a disjoint well-order of type $\beta$, with every point of the first preceding the second. They agree by transfinite induction on $\beta$: the empty second order does nothing; adding its last point takes the successor; at a limit ordinal, the concatenated order is the union of its initial concatenations, whose types have the displayed supremum.