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BI-INTERPRETATION IN WEAK SET THEORIES
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 October 2020
Abstract
In contrast to the robust mutual interpretability phenomenon in set theory, Ali Enayat proved that bi-interpretation is absent: distinct theories extending ZF are never bi-interpretable and models of ZF are bi-interpretable only when they are isomorphic. Nevertheless, for natural weaker set theories, we prove, including Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory
$\mathrm {ZFC}^{-}$
without power set and Zermelo set theory Z, there are nontrivial instances of bi-interpretation. Specifically, there are well-founded models of
$\mathrm {ZFC}^{-}$
that are bi-interpretable, but not isomorphic—even
$\langle H_{\omega _1},\in \rangle $
and
$ \langle H_{\omega _2},\in \rangle $
can be bi-interpretable—and there are distinct bi-interpretable theories extending
$\mathrm {ZFC}^{-}$
. Similarly, using a construction of Mathias, we prove that every model of ZF is bi-interpretable with a model of Zermelo set theory in which the replacement axiom fails.
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- © The Association for Symbolic Logic 2020
Footnotes
Commentary can be made about this article on the second author’s blog at http://jdh.hamkins.org/bi-interpretation-in-weak-set-theories.
References
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