Paper 4, Section II, 8E

Numbers and Sets
Part IA, 2018

Define what it means for a set to be countable.

Show that for any set XX, there is no surjection from XX onto the power set P(X)\mathcal{P}(X). Deduce that the set {0,1}N\{0,1\}^{\mathbb{N}} of all infinite 010-1 sequences is uncountable.

Let L\mathcal{L} be the set of sequences (Fn)n=0\left(F_{n}\right)_{n=0}^{\infty} of subsets F0F1F2F_{0} \subset F_{1} \subset F_{2} \subset \ldots of N\mathbb{N} such that Fn=n\left|F_{n}\right|=n for all nNn \in \mathbb{N} and nFn=N\bigcup_{n} F_{n}=\mathbb{N}. Let L0\mathcal{L}_{0} consist of all members (Fn)n=0\left(F_{n}\right)_{n=0}^{\infty} of L\mathcal{L} for which nFnn \in F_{n} for all but finitely many nNn \in \mathbb{N}. Let L1\mathcal{L}_{1} consist of all members (Fn)n=0\left(F_{n}\right)_{n=0}^{\infty} of L\mathcal{L} for which nFn+1n \in F_{n+1} for all but finitely many nNn \in \mathbb{N}. For each of L0\mathcal{L}_{0} and L1\mathcal{L}_{1} determine whether it is countable or uncountable. Justify your answers.