Alphabeta Math
TheoremStatement: Literature-sourcedProof: AI-adaptedSession-authored (Fable 5 assisted)precheck passaudited 2026-08-13 rests on unproved material (inherited)
How statement and proof provenance work

The first chip identifies the source of the statement or construction; the second identifies the source of its local proof or verification.

  • Literature-sourced: the exact statement appears in a cited source; only wording and notation differ.
  • AI-adapted: a semantically identical restatement of literature-sourced material, modulo indexing, notation, and boundary cases adopted by the library.
  • AI-generated: a genuinely novel statement formulated by AI, with no source for the claim itself.

These labels describe origin, not correctness: citations and verification chips remain separate evidence.

Rests on 3 statements not proved in this library, by way of the results it cites. This item cites no such statement directly; it depends on results that do. The unproved premises it inherits are Cohen's first model: an infinite Dedekind-finite set of reals, Sierpiński 1947: the generalised continuum hypothesis implies the Axiom of Choice and The continuum hypothesis and its generalisation are independent of ZFC. Each is recorded with a citation to the literature and is not established here, because the track that would prove it has not yet been developed in this library. Everything else in this proof is proved here.

Assuming Choice, a small category with products or coproducts indexed by the cardinality of its morphism set is a preorder

Statement

Assume Choice. Let C be small and put κ=Mor(C). If every constant κ-indexed family has a product, then C is a preorder. The same conclusion follows if every constant κ-indexed family has a coproduct.

Facts & Assumptions

Given: The small category, its morphism cardinal κ, and one of the two product or coproduct hypotheses.

[F2]

The cardinality of a small category is the cardinality of its morphism set (Assuming Choice, cardinality of a small category and κ-small diagrams).

[F3]

A preorder is reflexive and transitive, and its associated category has at most one arrow between any two objects (Preorder and monotone map, A preorder is a category with at most one morphism between any two objects, and its functors are exactly monotone maps).

Proof

technique · cardinality contradiction
1.1

Suppose distinct parallel arrows f,g:AB exist, and let P=Bκ be a product of the constant κ-family. For each subset Sκ, [F1] gives a unique hS:AP whose ith projection is f when iS and g when iS.

F1given
2.1

If ST, choose i in their symmetric difference. The ith composites of hS and hT are f and g in some order, so hShT. Thus ShS injects P(κ) into Mor(C).

step 1.1given
3.1

By [F2], the codomain has cardinality κ, whereas [L1] says the domain has strictly larger cardinality. This contradiction proves that no distinct parallel arrows exist. Identities and composition already make the object relation reflexive and transitive, so [F3] makes C a preorder.

F2L1F3step 2.1
4.1

Apply [L2] to Cop. Its morphism set has the same cardinality, a κ-indexed coproduct in C is a product there, and being a preorder is unchanged by reversal. This proves the coproduct clause.

F2F3L2step 3.1

Depends on

Used by

Dependency tree · next 3 levels

Direct dependencies and their dependencies through the next three levels: 53 results over 14 levels. An arrow runs from a result to what uses it, and this result sits at the bottom with a heavier outline. Click the chart to enlarge it.

Sources