Paper 4, Section II, I

Logic and Set Theory
Part II, 2014

Explain what is meant by a chain-complete poset. State the Bourbaki-Witt fixedpoint theorem.

We call a poset (P,)(P, \leqslant) Bourbakian if every order-preserving map f:PPf: P \rightarrow P has a least fixed point μ(f)\mu(f). Suppose PP is Bourbakian, and let f,g:PPf, g: P \rightrightarrows P be order-preserving maps with f(x)g(x)f(x) \leqslant g(x) for all xPx \in P; show that μ(f)μ(g)\mu(f) \leqslant \mu(g). [Hint: Consider the function h:PPh: P \rightarrow P defined by h(x)=f(x)h(x)=f(x) if xμ(g),h(x)=μ(g)x \leqslant \mu(g), h(x)=\mu(g) otherwise.]

Suppose PP is Bourbakian and f:αPf: \alpha \rightarrow P is an order-preserving map from an ordinal to PP. Show that there is an order-preserving map g:PPg: P \rightarrow P whose fixed points are exactly the upper bounds of the set {f(β)β<α}\{f(\beta) \mid \beta<\alpha\}, and deduce that this set has a least upper bound.

Let CC be a chain with no greatest member. Using the Axiom of Choice and Hartogs' Lemma, show that there is an order-preserving map f:αCf: \alpha \rightarrow C, for some ordinal α\alpha, whose image has no upper bound in CC. Deduce that any Bourbakian poset is chain-complete.