Paper 3, Section II, H

Logic and Set Theory
Part II, 2012

Write down either the synthetic or the recursive definitions of ordinal addition and multiplication. Using your definitions, give proofs or counterexamples for the following statements:

(i) For all α,β\alpha, \beta and γ\gamma, we have α(β+γ)=αβ+αγ\alpha \cdot(\beta+\gamma)=\alpha \cdot \beta+\alpha \cdot \gamma.

(ii) For all α,β\alpha, \beta and γ\gamma, we have (α+β)γ=αγ+βγ(\alpha+\beta) \cdot \gamma=\alpha \cdot \gamma+\beta \cdot \gamma.

(iii) For all α\alpha and β\beta with β>0\beta>0, there exist γ\gamma and δ\delta with δ<β\delta<\beta and α=βγ+δ\alpha=\beta \cdot \gamma+\delta.

(iv) For all α\alpha and β\beta with β>0\beta>0, there exist γ\gamma and δ\delta with δ<β\delta<\beta and α=γβ+δ\alpha=\gamma \cdot \beta+\delta.

(v) For every α\alpha, either there exists a cofinal map f:ωαf: \omega \rightarrow \alpha (that is, one such that α={f(n)+nω})\left.\alpha=\bigcup\left\{f(n)^{+} \mid n \in \omega\right\}\right), or there exists β\beta such that α=ω1β.\alpha=\omega_{1} \cdot \beta .