Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 27 6 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Use a relative consistency construction: a model of ZF gives one of ZFC through , and we construct a model of New Foundations with urelements from it. In the language with membership and a unary predicate , NFU requires that atoms have no members, extensionality holds between sets, and every stratified formula has a set extension. A type assignment gives equal variables equal types and raises type by one across membership. We prove the actual comprehension scheme, rather than invoke its consistency by name.
Start with a model and Skolemize it. Apply the Ramsey construction from Question 1 to obtain increasing ordinal indiscernibles , all greater than . The finite satisfiability step uses the infinite increasing list in the original model. Include the ordinal and ordering requirements in the finite truth colorings. Ramsey and compactness produce the indiscernibles; their Skolem hull still models ZFC. The index shift gives an external structure automorphism of with . Such a model is necessarily externally ill-founded: is an external descending ordinal sequence. No well-founded-model hypothesis is being smuggled in.
For every integer , let be the external domain consisting of the objects of belonging internally to . At type , declare iff says . Use membership of only for flagged targets; an unflagged object has no typed members. A flagged object is a set of the preceding type. Set-extensionality holds since all members of a flagged set lie in .
Every typed comprehension instance holds. Translate its finitely many typed quantifiers into quantifiers bounded by the appropriate sets . Separation in gives its extension for the distinguished free variable of type . Since , this subset is an object of and satisfies its set predicate. Also is bijective and preserves the typed relations and flags. This is the required type-shifting automorphism.
Collapse to the single domain by definingIf , its image is a subset of , so its entire extension is visible in . The flag is necessary: an unflagged object might otherwise have a partial visible extension. Flagged coextensive objects have equal images under , by extensionality in , and hence are equal; atoms have no -members.
Now take a stratified untyped formula . Shift its type assignment so that has type zero, allowing negative integer types for other variables. Send a variable of assigned type to of its untyped value. Equality is preserved, and membership translates to flagged ordinary membership from type to type . A set predicate translates to its flag at that type. Quantifiers correspond bijectively under . Thus induction on the formula gives exact agreement between its untyped truth and this typed translation.
Typed comprehension supplies an object , flagged at type one, containing exactly the type-zero solutions. Let . It is flagged at type zero, and for every , iff iff . This proves all stratified comprehension, including an empty set and the universal set. We have constructedIf infinity is included in the convention for NFU, the same construction supports it: and its successor graph lie far below and are fixed by , since they are definable without parameters in . The domain of the new set is the old , since . An ordered pair in the new membership relation is of the old Kuratowski pair. The old successor graph is fixed as a whole by , so its elements are exactly these recoded pairs as ranges over . It therefore supplies an actual new successor injection with proper range. This does not assume that fixes each nonstandard natural number. This is the rank-shifting automorphism construction of NFU; its logical ingredients are precisely the proved indiscernible-model construction and ordinary set separation in the typed domains.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 25 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
A useful precise form of the Ehrenfeucht-Mostowski theorem is this: for an infinite structure and any linear order , a model of can be generated as a Skolem hull by distinct order indiscernibles . Every order automorphism of extends to an automorphism of that hull in the chosen Skolem language. One may first name all elements of , giving an elementary extension containing the original structure. The generation and uniqueness assertions concern this specified expansion, not arbitrary automorphisms of its reduct.
Choose a Skolem expansion : for each existential formula add a function selecting a witness whenever one exists. Introduce constants for . Take the theory of , distinctness of these constants, and all equivalencesThe formulas here are in the fixed expanded language, without the newly added as extra parameters. If naming , use its complete elementary diagram and allow those original names in the formulas.
Every finite fragment has a model by Ramsey's theorem. Only finitely many formulas and constants occur. Take a sequence of distinct elements of . For each arity appearing, color the increasing tuples from this sequence by the finite vector of truth values of all formulas of that arity. Successive Ramsey thinning gives an infinite subset homogeneous for each of these finitely many colorings. Assign the finitely many constants in increasing order to distinct elements of this subset. This satisfies every displayed equivalence in the fragment; the original theory is satisfied because the underlying structure remains . Compactness now gives a model of the full theory, with the required order-indiscernible sequence.
The substructure generated by the constants under the Skolem functions is elementary: any existential formula with parameters which are terms in the generators has its Skolem witness in that same hull. If is an order automorphism of , defineIndiscernibility makes this well-defined, by applying it to the equation between any two term representations using the increasing tuple of all their indices. The same argument preserves every relation and function; supplies the inverse. It is unique in the generated Skolem structure. This completes the Ramsey proof, rather than stopping at the existence of indiscernibles.
For simple typed set theory with atoms, use sorts and membership only from to . A set predicate distinguishes sets from atoms, extensionality compares sets of the same positive type, and comprehension produces in type every subset of defined by a well-typed formula. Atoms have no members. First-order models use Henkin semantics; they are not required to have their next domain equal to the full external power set. Typical ambiguity is the schema for each closed sentence, where every sort index in is raised by one.
We show finite satisfiability of this entire typed theory with ambiguity. Choose a list of ranks above , spaced by at least two. For a finite increasing selection of ranks , letwhere is the set of objects declared to be sets at type . Membership from to is ordinary membership restricted to objects of ; all other type- objects are atoms. The spacing puts inside . Thus comprehension and set extensionality hold exactly, and atoms have no typed members. There are infinitely many objects at every visible type, so any usual typed infinity requirement also holds.
The auxiliary rank provides a uniform interpretation if a set predicate is allowed at type zero; no type-minus-one domain is used in the theory. This avoids artificially declaring all type-zero objects to be atoms, which would not be invariant under type-raising. If the language has no type-zero set predicate, simply ignore this auxiliary interpretation.
A finite set of ambiguity instances uses finitely many closed sentences of bounded highest type, say at most . Color increasing -tuples of ranks by their finite truth vector in the structure with visible domains and the auxiliary preceding rank. Ramsey's theorem gives an infinite homogeneous rank set. Choose consecutive ranks from it and build the hierarchy on all these ranks. The first window evaluates each original sentence; shifting the window one place evaluates its uniform type-raise. Homogeneity makes the truth vectors equal. All finite typed axioms and the selected ambiguity instances therefore hold together. Choosing large enough covers every sort needed by the finite fragment. Many-sorted compactness, equivalently ordinary first-order compactness after encoding sorts, yieldsThis is a model existence argument in the ambient set theory; no equality of adjacent type cardinalities is claimed. The gaps between ranks supply atoms, and the ambiguity is about truth of sentences, not a bijection between domains.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 25 6 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
We prove the Ehrenfeucht-Mostowski theorem by ordered products of ultrafilters, without using Ramsey's theorem. Choose a Skolem expansion of the infinite structure and distinct elements . Fix a nonprincipal ultrafilter on .
For a finite increasing subset of the desired index order , define the ordered Fubini product of ultrafilters on byThe notation means that the set of satisfying belongs to ; the leftmost quantifier is outermost. Upward closure and intersection follow successively at each coordinate, and applying complement at each step proves the ultrafilter dichotomy. Products are ordered; no false claim of symmetry is needed.
Put , with . If , pullback of a function by coordinate projection inducesFor a cylinder condition involving only coordinates in , deleting the unused ultrafilter quantifiers makes its membership in exactly its membership in . The Łoś theorem therefore makes an elementary embedding, not merely a homomorphism. The projection identities give .
Take the directed limit of this system: elements from two stages are identified if their images agree at a common larger finite stage, and formulas are evaluated at such a stage. Elementary coherence makes this well-defined. It also makes each stage elementary in the limit: a formula uses finitely many parameters, and an existential witness at a later stage can be pulled back at the level of existential truth because the transition maps are elementary. Denote the limit by .
For each , let be the limit image of the coordinate function . These elements are distinct. For , after fixing , equality holds for at most one , a set not in ; hence equality fails in the two-coordinate ultrapower and therefore in the limit.
For any increasing , Łoś evaluatesThe right-hand side depends on the formula and the number of increasing coordinates, not their particular indices. Thus is order-indiscernible for every formula of the expanded language simultaneously; no preliminary homogeneous thinning is used. If elements of were named before expanding, the same computation gives indiscernibility over those names and the initial stage embeds the original structure into the limit.
The Skolem hull of these generators is elementary by the witness property. Transporting the generators by any order automorphism of transports every term, with well-definedness and relation preservation supplied by the formula equivalence just proved. The inverse transport supplies an inverse automorphism. The ordered-ultrapower construction gives the full Ehrenfeucht–Mostowski model and its order automorphisms without Ramsey's theorem.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 20 6 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
For the Ehrenfeucht-Mostowski theorem, let be an infinite first-order structure and any linear order. Choose a full Skolem expansion : add witness functions for existential formulas, repeat in the expanded languages, and take their union. We will construct a model of its theory containing distinct generators , , forming an order-indiscernible sequence.
Adjoin the elementary diagram of , the inequalities for , and for every expanded-language formula and every two increasing -tuples of indices, the sentencesEvery finite subcollection is satisfiable in . To prove this, choose a countably infinite sequence of distinct elements of , and for each of the finitely many relevant arities color its increasing index tuples by the finite vector of truth values of the formulas of that arity. Repeated applications of the Ramsey's theorem give an infinite subsequence homogeneous for all these finitely many finite colorings. Interpret the finitely many mentioned by its elements in their index order. All indiscernibility and distinctness constraints hold, and the finite diagram fragment holds because the ambient structure is still .
By compactness theorem, a model of the full enlarged theory exists. Its Skolem hull generated by the is elementary: whenever an existential formula with parameters in holds in , its chosen witness function returns a value in , so the Tarski-Vaught test applies. Its reduct is a model of . If the index order has size , the hull has size at most , and it contains distinct generators.
Every order automorphism of induces the automorphismTo check well-definedness, write any two terms being compared over the same increasing list of their generators. Their equality is an expanded-language formula; indiscernibility of the order-indiscernible sequence preserves its truth under . The same argument preserves each relation, and the term construction preserves the functions. Applying gives the inverse. The extension is unique in the specified Skolem language since every hull element is a term in the generators; no uniqueness among all automorphisms of the reduct is being asserted. This proves the Ehrenfeucht-Mostowski theorem, including its usual automorphism consequence.
For simple typed set theory with atoms, use sorts , predicates for sets, and typed membership from sort to sort . Atoms have no members, extensionality compares sets, and every well-typed formula defines a set of the next sort. Typical ambiguity is the schema for every closed typed sentence, where the superscript raises all types by one.
Here are concrete full typed models before imposing the ambiguity schema. Choose increasing natural numbers and setThe auxiliary merely interprets the set predicate at the lowest sort. Define typed membership byThen the other objects of are atoms, regardless of their old membership. Every subset of has its representative in , giving comprehension even for formulas with higher-sort quantifiers and parameters. Extensionality holds for the set representatives and atoms have no typed members. The rank gaps leave infinitely many atoms at each sort, and all sorts are infinite.
Consider finitely many ambiguity instances with unraised sentences , and choose a fixed window length sufficient to include every sort used and its auxiliary predecessor. Color every increasing -tuple of natural numbers by the vector of truth values of these unraised sentences in its finite rank-window interpretation. There are only colors. The Ramsey's theorem gives an infinite homogeneous set. Choose successive points from it. The first points and last points have the same color, while the latter interpretation of is exactly the former model's interpretation of . The auxiliary predecessor shifts too, so this remains true for sentences mentioning the lowest set predicate. Extend the chosen rank sequence arbitrarily to interpret the remaining sorts. This yields a model of typed set theory satisfying all the specified ambiguity instances.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 20 8 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Let be a full Skolem expansion of an infinite structure , choose distinct for , and extend the cofinite filter to a nonprincipal ultrafilter on . For a finite subset of the desired index order , define the ordered Fubini product of ultrafilters on bywhere means . These nested tests decide complements and preserve intersections by induction on , so is indeed an ultrafilter. For the empty set use the one-point index set and its principal ultrafilter.
Put . If , projection of coordinates inducesA truth test independent of a coordinate is unchanged by its dummy ultrafilter quantifier. Consequently pullback preserves exactly the -large subsets, proving that the map is well defined and injective. The Łoś theorem, applied to every formula rather than just to equality, proves that it is an elementary embedding. Projections compose, so these elementary maps form a coherent directed system.
Take its directed limit of elementary embeddings . Explicitly identify two stage elements when their images agree at a common larger stage, and interpret functions and relations there. For an existential formula true in the limit, its parameters and a witness occur at a common stage; elementarity then pulls truth back to the stage of the original parameters. This verifies that all stage maps into the limit are elementary.
Let be the image in this limit of the coordinate class . These elements are distinct: in , equality would require , whose inner-coordinate section is a singleton and hence not in the nonprincipal . For , the truth of any expanded-language formula on is exactlyThis expression depends on the formula and the tuple length, not on the chosen increasing indices. Thus is an order-indiscernible sequence. The empty-coordinate stage embeds elementarily into .
Their Skolem hull is elementary by the witness-function argument, and an order automorphism of extends to it by transporting the generators in every term. Equality and relation preservation follow from the displayed uniform truth test, and the inverse order automorphism gives the inverse map. Therefore this proves the Ehrenfeucht-Mostowski theorem through ultrapowers and their directed limit, with no Ramsey-theoretic step.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 135 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
One form of the Ehrenfeucht-Mostowski theorem says that, for every infinite first-order structure and every total order , an elementary extension contains distinct elements forming an order-indiscernible sequence. After a suitable Skolem expansion, their Skolem hull is a first-order model of , and every order automorphism of extends to a structure automorphism of that hull. If has a definable infinite linearly ordered subset , the generators may lie in and their order may agree with that definable order. Uniqueness of the extended structure automorphism is asserted in the chosen Skolem expansion, rather than for every structure automorphism of its reduct.
Here is an ultraproduct proof of the Ehrenfeucht-Mostowski theorem. First expand to with Skolem functions for all existential first-order formulas, iterating through the enlarged languages if necessary. This is done in the ordinary classical metatheory; the choice restriction in question 1 is not a restriction on this question. Fix a nonprincipal ultrafilter on .
We can obtain an infinite sequence of distinct elements in an elementary extension of by one preliminary ultrapower. For each choose a finite list of distinct elements of . Represent by the function taking the th entry when , with an arbitrary default otherwise. Distinctness holds on a cofinite set, so follows from Łoś theorem. In the definably ordered variant, first name any parameters defining , and choose each finite list increasingly inside instead; then and for . Infinitude of an ordered set supplies every finite increasing chain. This preparatory step uses no Ramsey theorem.
For a finite subset of , define the ultrafilter on by nested membership, in this order:where means . This is the ordered Fubini product of ultrafilters. Closure under intersections and the decision between a set and its complement hold at each nested level, proving it is an ultrafilter. For take the principal ultrafilter on the one-point product. PutIf , pull a function back along the projection . A test independent of an omitted coordinate is unchanged by its ultrafilter quantifier, so projection pushes to . The induced map is therefore an elementary embedding by Łoś theorem. These maps are coherent, giving a directed system indexed by finite subsets of .
Take its directed limit of elementary embeddings . One can verify elementarity directly: representatives of a finite tuple occur at a common stage; functions and atomic relations are interpreted there. In the existential step, a witness in the limit occurs with the parameters at some later common stage, and elementarity pulls the existence statement back. Thus every embeds elementarily into , which contains an elementary copy of .
For , let be the class of the coordinate function . Projection coherence makes this independent of . If , then for each fixed the set is cofinite. The nested test therefore gives . In the ordered variant, the same argument with gives and .
For every first-order formula of the expanded language and every increasing tuple , Łoś theorem givesThe right-hand side depends on the first-order formula and tuple length, not on the indices. This proves order indiscernibility in the expanded language. Let be the Skolem hull of the generators in . The Tarski-Vaught test gives , and its reduct is a first-order model of .
An order automorphism of acts byIndiscernibility makes this well defined: combine the finite supports of two term expressions into one increasing tuple, and apply indiscernibility to their logical equality. Applying it to relation first-order formulas proves preservation of all relations; the inverse is induced by . Every element of the hull is such a term, so the extension is unique among structure automorphisms preserving the Skolem expansion. MoreoverThis proves the theorem, including its ordered version and structure automorphism conclusion, using ultrapowers and a directed limit throughout.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 121 1 v a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
We construct the two transitive models together, taking care that the later collapse really retains the earlier model. First, a worldly cardinal is greater than : ZFC in contains the full power set , and the axiom of choice there gives a bijection between it and an ordinal . That power set is externally uncountable by Cantor theorem, so . Infinity rules out the finite cardinals and before this argument is applied.
By the Downward Lowenheim-Skolem theorem, choose a countable elementary substructure . Its inherited membership is a well-founded relation, and elementarity transfers extensionality from . Apply the Mostowski collapse theorem to obtain a countable transitive model of ZFC. Because is a countable transitive set, it is a hereditarily countable set and its rank of a set is below . In particular, .
Now take the Skolem hull in of the seedCall it . The seed has external cardinality and lies inside . The hull is an elementary substructure of with : closure under countably many finitary Skolem functions gives the upper bound, and gives the lower bound. Let be its Mostowski collapse theorem map. Then is a transitive model of ZFC.
The transitive collapse fixes transitive subsets lemma gives for every , since is transitive. Since also , the collapse sends that element to itself. Thus , and transitivity of yields the required inclusion:This is the construction of nested transitive models from a worldly cardinal; the next two parts verify its size and ordinal requirements.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 iii Paper 120 2 c Solution 2026-09-28
The Ehrenfeucht-Mostowski theorem says that if a first-order theory has an infinite model, then for every total order there is a model generated as the Skolem hull of distinct order indiscernibles , and every order automorphism of extends to an automorphism of .
Given an infinite cardinal , let with the lexicographic order, viewed as consecutive copies of the rational order. In each copy independently choose either the identity or a fixed nonidentity order automorphism of . These choices give distinct order automorphisms of .
Apply the theorem to this order. Distinct order automorphisms act differently on the distinct generators , so their extensions give an injection into the automorphism group of a first-order structure . Therefore , proving that has models with arbitrarily large automorphism groups.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 iii Paper 116 3 a Solution 2026-09-28
Since the strongly inaccessible cardinal is inaccessible, is a model of ZFC. The Downward Lowenheim-Skolem theorem gives an elementary substructureof cardinality such thatOne may obtain concretely as the Skolem hull of this set; its cardinality remains because the language of set theory is countable and .
Apply the Mostowski collapse theorem to and write for the collapse. Then is a transitive set, , and fixes pointwise. It also fixes , because it fixes every ordinal below . By elementarity, satisfies ZFC and regards as a kappa-complete filter that is a nonprincipal ultrafilter on . Therefore, with ,The internal ultrafilter need not equal the original .
NFU has a unary predicate for sets, atoms have no members, extensionality applies to sets, and comprehension applies to every stratified formula. A stratification assigns integer types to variables so that equality uses equal types and requires . A unary set predicate adds no type difference.
Start with the actual set structure . This structure satisfies extensionality and every pure-membership separation instance: the subset defined in a set of rank below still has rank below . We do not assert that satisfies replacement or all of ZFC. Expand it by Skolem functions. In it use the sequence of rank objects , . For two such objects in sequence order, we havewith quantifiers in . The second statement holds because every subset of belongs to , and the later rank is at least .
Introduce constants , , and require them to be order indiscernibles in the Skolem language, satisfying these two assertions whenever . Also require for every ; this fixed rank object is first-order definable in . Every finite part of these requirements together with is satisfiable: color finite increasing tuples of the original rank sequence by the truth values of the finitely many formulas mentioned, and use Ramsey's theorem to get a homogeneous subsequence. The rank assertions hold for every increasing tuple there. The compactness theorem gives a model of the full theory. In its Skolem hull generated by the , the integer shift extends to an automorphism with , by the term-transport proof of the Ehrenfeucht-Mostowski theorem. Thus still satisfies extensionality and all pure-membership separation instances, andThis is a set-sized first-order model; no satisfaction predicate for a proper-class universe is being assumed.
Externally let . The automorphism bijects onto . Interpret a typed structure with sort equal to . At sort , declare a set exactly when ; otherwise it is an atom. Define adjacent-sort membership byThe guard is necessary: a typed atom might have some ordinary -members in , and those must not become its typed members. Set-extensionality follows from extensionality in , because the ordinary members of a typed set all lie in . For any typed formula on sort , its quantifiers can be restricted to the corresponding , its set predicates replaced by subset assertions, and its memberships replaced by the guarded relation. This is an ordinary pure-membership formula of with finitely many parameters. Separation gives its extension , and the displayed closure assertion gives . It is therefore a typed set witnessing comprehension. The automorphism shifts these sorted domains and preserves the set flags and guarded memberships.
Collapse the types onto . DefineObjects not satisfying have no -members. If two sets have the same -members, their images under are subsets of with the same ordinary members, so are equal by extensionality of ; injectivity of gives equality of the original objects.
To verify every stratified comprehension instance, assign a variable its stratification type and translate its value to . Equality is preserved. An atomic translates to the guarded adjacent-sort membership because ; the unary predicate translates to . Induction on formulas, using the domain bijections for quantifiers, preserves truth. If the free variable has type , typed comprehension produces its extension , with . Put . Then holds, and for every ,This is exactly the required NFU set. No formula containing the external automorphism has been used in a separation or comprehension scheme; only transports values after the pure formula is formed.
The construction also permits the usual infinity requirement. The ordinary and its successor graph are definable in , hence fixed by , and lie below , so belong to all the required domains. Under , the members of are still its ordinary -members. The new Kuratowski pair satisfiesSince , membership of this pair in under is equivalent to . Thus is an internal injection of into itself omitting zero, giving a Dedekind-infinite set.
In a model of ZFC, choose an external automorphism and an ordinal with . Set for integer , and declare the sets of type to be its objects that are subsets of . Ordinary membership between successive types satisfies typed comprehension and set-extensionality. The automorphism shifts all types, yielding NFU by the type-zero collapse. A Skolem hull of integer-indexed increasing ordinal indiscernibles supplies such a by shifting the indices. The model is externally ill-founded; a transitive well-founded universe cannot have such an automorphism.
Skolem expansion 2026-10-05
A Skolem expansion adjoins a Skolem function for every existential first-order formula. Iterating through the successively enlarged languages, and taking their union, gives a language with witness functions even for first-order formulas involving previously added functions. Starting from a language of size , the resulting language has size at most . A hull closed under its functions is a Skolem hull and is elementary in the expanded structure by the Tarski-Vaught test.
Expand an infinite first-order structure by Skolem functions, choose distinct elements , and fix a nonprincipal ultrafilter on . For each finite subset of the required index order, form the ultrapower over using the ordered Fubini product of ultrafilters. Pullback along coordinate projections gives coherent elementary maps by the Łoś theorem. In their directed limit of elementary embeddings, the classes of the coordinate functions are distinct and form an order-indiscernible sequence; every first-order formula on increasing coordinates has the same nested ultrafilter test. Their Skolem hull gives an Ehrenfeucht-Mostowski model. An index-order automorphism sends a term in the generators to the same term in the transported generators; indiscernibility makes this well defined. Uniqueness is in the specified Skolem expansion, not necessarily in its reduct. If generators must respect a definable infinite order, first produce an increasing sequence by an ultrapower of finite increasing chains.