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Rudin shrinking obstruction
Statement
Assume AC. In the sets , , are closed, decrease, and have empty intersection. For every sequence of open sets there is with
All inequalities are pointwise. In particular, no such open neighborhoods have empty intersection.
Facts & Assumptions
Given: The stated spaces, slices and open neighborhoods, in the AC setting.
is the box product of the ordinal intervals , is an infinite subset of , and requires a uniform strict finite-aleph bound on uncountable coordinate cofinalities (Rudin ordinal box spaces on infinite index sets).
Every open neighborhood of contains a pointwise tail above a function in (Neighborhoods of Rudin initial-top slices contain tails).
Under AC each positive finite aleph is regular ( is regular in ZF; assuming the Axiom of Choice every successor aleph is regular; , so is singular, and under choice it is the least singular infinite cardinal).
An ordinal of uncountable cofinality bounds every countable subset; a cofinal subset has size at least the ordinal's cofinality (; and ; for a limit ordinal the value is an infinite cardinal with , so it is regular; and every cofinal subset of has cardinality at least , a value that is attained).
is the order type of a copy of followed by a copy of ( is the order type of followed by ).
A sum of two cardinals at most an infinite cardinal has size at most (Absorption: for cardinals with infinite and , , and when ).
AC supplies a countable choice of the existing tail bounds (The Axiom of Choice).
Proof
For a coordinate , the set is open: it is the intersection with of the box with factor at and whole factors elsewhere, and is an open initial ray of the ordinal interval. Thus the set with is closed. Each is the intersection of finitely many such sets, hence closed, and because it imposes all preceding equalities. The empty initial coordinate set gives . If belonged to every , taking would give for every . F3 would make these coordinate cofinalities , which have no finite uniform aleph bound: the infinite subset of the natural numbers is unbounded, since a bounded subset would be finite. This contradicts F1. Hence .
For every , F2 gives a nonempty set of functions whose tails are contained in . Use A1 to choose one for each and put . Each is uncountable regular by F3, so F4 gives . Thus belongs to the product in the statement. If with , then at every coordinate and every . The defining property of puts in every .
Define using ordinal addition. By F5 this is the order type of the disjoint ordered sum of and . With , one has because and . F6 bounds that sum's cardinality by , hence its order type is below the initial ordinal : an ordinal at least would contain a copy of and have cardinality at least . The final copy of is cofinal in the sum, so . A shorter cofinal set cannot exist. Its part in the final copy would be bounded there by regularity F3 and F4, and a larger point of that copy would then bound the entire set, including all points in the initial part. Therefore . The final copy is nonempty and has no largest point, so , also when . All coordinate cofinalities of are , so F1 gives .
The point in step 2.1 belongs to the tail above , making that tail nonempty. Step 1.2 puts the entire tail in , and step 1.1 gives the decreasing closed sequence with empty intersection. These are all the stated conclusions. QED.
Depends on
- Rudin ordinal box spaces on infinite index sets
- Neighborhoods of Rudin initial-top slices contain tails
- $\operatorname{cf}(\alpha) \le \alpha$; $\operatorname{cf}(0) = 0$ and $\operatorname{cf}(\alpha + 1) = 1$; for a limit ordinal $\lambda$ the value $\operatorname{cf}(\lambda)$ is an infinite cardinal with $\operatorname{cf}(\operatorname{cf}(\lambda)) = \operatorname{cf}(\lambda)$, so it is regular; and every cofinal subset of $\lambda$ has cardinality at least $\operatorname{cf}(\lambda)$, a value that is attained
- $\aleph_0$ is regular in ZF; assuming the Axiom of Choice every successor aleph $\aleph_{\alpha+1}$ is regular; $\operatorname{cf}(\aleph_\omega) = \aleph_0$, so $\aleph_\omega$ is singular, and under choice it is the least singular infinite cardinal
- The Axiom of Choice
- $\alpha + \beta$ is the order type of $\alpha$ followed by $\beta$
- Absorption: for cardinals $\kappa, \lambda$ with $\kappa$ infinite and $\lambda \le \kappa$, $\kappa \oplus \lambda = \kappa$, and $\kappa \otimes \lambda = \kappa$ when $\lambda \ne 0$
Used by
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Sources
- K. P. Hart, Set-Theoretic Methods in General Topology, Chapter 6 section 3, Exercises 1–2 and Lemma 3.1, printed p. 37 (standard reference, not scraped)