Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 19 2 iii b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Use the transitive-model convention for “standard” in this assertion: the domain is a transitive set and membership is actual membership. A standard membership model of set theory without transitivity is a weaker notion and would not justify the asserted absoluteness. Ordinalhood is bounded-formula absolute, so the internal ordinals are precisely . Satisfaction for a set structure is absolute between transitive ZF models containing that structure: the domain, finite parameter tuples, formula codes and the recursive truth clauses are the same. Equivalently one may use the absoluteness of the predicate defining .
Transfinite induction now gives for each ordinal . At successors both computations use the same definable subsets of the same set structure; at limits they take the same union over all smaller ordinals, which belong to by transitivity. ThusFor a set-sized model of ordinal height , this is . The restriction to actual ordinals makes the printed union precise. Mere well-foundedness of a nontransitive membership substructure would not justify these absoluteness steps; transitivity is the intended standard-model convention.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 24 4 a i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
A standard membership model of set theory has the actual membership relation:When “standard model” is used with the transitive-model convention, one also requires to be transitive: implies . Under a convention where standard means only actual membership, this extra requirement defines a transitive model. The set-theoretic absoluteness arguments below use transitive models of ZFC, so that bounded quantification and ordinals have their intended meaning.