Surveys in Set Theory


Book Description

This book comprises five expository articles and two research papers on topics of current interest in set theory and the foundations of mathematics. Articles by Baumgartner and Devlin introduce the reader to proper forcing. This is a development by Saharon Shelah of Cohen's method which has led to solutions of problems that resisted attack by forcing methods as originally developed in the 1960s. The article by Guaspari is an introduction to descriptive set theory, a subject that has developed dramatically in the last few years. Articles by Kanamori and Stanley discuss one of the most difficult concepts in contemporary set theory, that of the morass, first created by Ronald Jensen in 1971 to solve the gap-two conjecture in model theory, assuming Gödel's axiom of constructibility. The papers by Prikry and Shelah complete the volume by giving the reader the flavour of contemporary research in set theory. This book will be of interest to graduate students and research workers in set theory and mathematical logic.




Descriptive Set Theory


Book Description

Descriptive Set Theory is the study of sets in separable, complete metric spaces that can be defined (or constructed), and so can be expected to have special properties not enjoyed by arbitrary pointsets. This subject was started by the French analysts at the turn of the 20th century, most prominently Lebesgue, and, initially, was concerned primarily with establishing regularity properties of Borel and Lebesgue measurable functions, and analytic, coanalytic, and projective sets. Its rapid development came to a halt in the late 1930s, primarily because it bumped against problems which were independent of classical axiomatic set theory. The field became very active again in the 1960s, with the introduction of strong set-theoretic hypotheses and methods from logic (especially recursion theory), which revolutionized it. This monograph develops Descriptive Set Theory systematically, from its classical roots to the modern ``effective'' theory and the consequences of strong (especially determinacy) hypotheses. The book emphasizes the foundations of the subject, and it sets the stage for the dramatic results (established since the 1980s) relating large cardinals and determinacy or allowing applications of Descriptive Set Theory to classical mathematics. The book includes all the necessary background from (advanced) set theory, logic and recursion theory.




Quine, New Foundations, and the Philosophy of Set Theory


Book Description

Provides an accessible mathematical and philosophical account of Quine's set theory, New Foundations.




Labyrinth of Thought


Book Description

"José Ferreirós has written a magisterial account of the history of set theory which is panoramic, balanced, and engaging. Not only does this book synthesize much previous work and provide fresh insights and points of view, but it also features a major innovation, a full-fledged treatment of the emergence of the set-theoretic approach in mathematics from the early nineteenth century. This takes up Part One of the book. Part Two analyzes the crucial developments in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, above all the work of Cantor, but also Dedekind and the interaction between the two. Lastly, Part Three details the development of set theory up to 1950, taking account of foundational questions and the emergence of the modern axiomatization." (Bulletin of Symbolic Logic)




Geometric Set Theory


Book Description

This book introduces a new research direction in set theory: the study of models of set theory with respect to their extensional overlap or disagreement. In Part I, the method is applied to isolate new distinctions between Borel equivalence relations. Part II contains applications to independence results in Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory without Axiom of Choice. The method makes it possible to classify in great detail various paradoxical objects obtained using the Axiom of Choice; the classifying criterion is a ZF-provable implication between the existence of such objects. The book considers a broad spectrum of objects from analysis, algebra, and combinatorics: ultrafilters, Hamel bases, transcendence bases, colorings of Borel graphs, discontinuous homomorphisms between Polish groups, and many more. The topic is nearly inexhaustible in its variety, and many directions invite further investigation.




Extremal Finite Set Theory


Book Description

Extremal Finite Set Theory surveys old and new results in the area of extremal set system theory. It presents an overview of the main techniques and tools (shifting, the cycle method, profile polytopes, incidence matrices, flag algebras, etc.) used in the different subtopics. The book focuses on the cardinality of a family of sets satisfying certain combinatorial properties. It covers recent progress in the subject of set systems and extremal combinatorics. Intended for graduate students, instructors teaching extremal combinatorics and researchers, this book serves as a sound introduction to the theory of extremal set systems. In each of the topics covered, the text introduces the basic tools used in the literature. Every chapter provides detailed proofs of the most important results and some of the most recent ones, while the proofs of some other theorems are posted as exercises with hints. Features: Presents the most basic theorems on extremal set systems Includes many proof techniques Contains recent developments The book’s contents are well suited to form the syllabus for an introductory course About the Authors: Dániel Gerbner is a researcher at the Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest, Hungary. He holds a Ph.D. from Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary and has contributed to numerous publications. His research interests are in extremal combinatorics and search theory. Balázs Patkós is also a researcher at the Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He holds a Ph.D. from Central European University, Budapest and has authored several research papers. His research interests are in extremal and probabilistic combinatorics.




Classical Descriptive Set Theory


Book Description

Descriptive set theory has been one of the main areas of research in set theory for almost a century. This text presents a largely balanced approach to the subject, which combines many elements of the different traditions. It includes a wide variety of examples, more than 400 exercises, and applications, in order to illustrate the general concepts and results of the theory.




Toposes and Local Set Theories


Book Description

This text introduces topos theory, a development in category theory that unites important but seemingly diverse notions from algebraic geometry, set theory, and intuitionistic logic. Topics include local set theories, fundamental properties of toposes, sheaves, local-valued sets, and natural and real numbers in local set theories. 1988 edition.




Set Theory and the Continuum Problem


Book Description

A lucid, elegant, and complete survey of set theory, this three-part treatment explores axiomatic set theory, the consistency of the continuum hypothesis, and forcing and independence results. 1996 edition.




Descriptive Set Theory and the Structure of Sets of Uniqueness


Book Description

To make this work accessible to logicians as well as set theorists and analysts, classical and modern theory of sets of uniqueness are covered as well as the relevant parts of descriptive set theory.