Past exam of the axiomatic set theory course of the University of Oxford / 2011 / 3 / a

Use the usual cardinal arithmetic with the axiom of choice. The König theorem for cardinal numbers states that for any index set $I$ and cardinal numbers ${\kappa }_i<{\lambda }_i$,Represent the cardinal numbers as initial ordinals. Let $A=\{(i,\alpha ):i\in I,\alpha <{\kappa }_i\}$ and $B={\prod }_{i\in I}{\lambda }_i$. There is an injection $A\to B$: send $(i,\alpha )$ to the function whose $i$th coordinate is $\alpha +1$ and whose other coordinates are zero. The unique nonzero coordinate identifies $i$, and its value identifies $\alpha$. All values are allowed because $\alpha +1\le {\kappa }_i<{\lambda }_i$.

For any proposed surjection $F:A\to B$, its $i$th row has at most ${\kappa }_i$ elements, soChoose $b_i$ to be the least omitted ordinal. The function $b=(b_i{)}_{i\in I}$ belongs to $B$ and differs from $F(i,\alpha )$ at coordinate $i$, for every $(i,\alpha )\in A$. Thus $F$ is not surjective. Cardinal comparison now gives the strict inequality. If $I=\varnothing$, the conclusion is $0<1$, also valid.