Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 121 5 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
False as printed: separativity alone does not guarantee a new generic filter. A separative forcing order means that if , some is incompatible with . The one-point order is separative vacuously. Its only generic filter is , and this belongs to . Thus no exists in this example.
The natural missing hypothesis is that the nonempty order is an atomless forcing order. Under that hypothesis the intended argument works. Since is a countable transitive model, enumerate externally its dense subsets as . Choose with . Thenis a directed upward-closed filter in an ordered set and meets every . This is the Rasiowa–Sikorski lemma, giving a generic filter over .
If , the set difference would belong to . It is dense: a condition outside is already in ; a condition in has two incompatible stronger conditions, at least one of which cannot be in the directed filter . Genericity would require , a contradiction. ThusThis uses generic filter for an atomless order is new. A forcing atom is precisely the obstruction illustrated by the counterexample; separativity does not remove it.