The least weakly compact cardinal can be unfoldable, weakly measurable and nearly \(\theta\)-supercompact (Q494636)

This paper is a contribution to the study of ``identity crises'', to the context of small large cardinals. In his ground-breaking work, \textit{M. Magidor} [Ann. Math. Logic 10, 33--57 (1976; Zbl 0342.02051)] had established that if there is a strongly compact cardinal \(\kappa\), then there is a forcing extension in which \(\kappa\) is the least strongly compact cardinal and also the least measurable cardinal. The result then was extended in various directions by several people. In the current paper, the authors extend the phenomenon to weak measurability, unfoldability and partial near supercompactness. Let \(\kappa\) be an inaccessible cardinal. (1) \(\kappa\) is called unfoldable (see [\textit{A. Villaveces}, J. Symb. Log. 63, No. 3, 1116--1136 (1998; Zbl 0915.03034)]) if for every ordinal \(\theta\) and every transitive set \(M\) of size \(\kappa\) with \(\kappa \in M,\) there exist a transitive set \(N\) and an elementary embedding \(j: M \rightarrow N\) with critical point \(\kappa\) such that \(j(\kappa)>\theta.\) (2) \(\kappa\) is weakly measurable (see [\textit{J. A. Schanker}, Math. Log. Q. 57, No. 3, 266--280 (2011; Zbl 1221.03054)]) if for every transitive set \(M\) of size \(\kappa^+\) with \(\kappa \in M,\) there exist a transitive set \(N\) and an elementary embedding \(j: M \rightarrow N\) with critical point \(\kappa\). (3) \(\kappa\) is nearly \(\theta\)-supercompact (see [\textit{J. A. Schanker}, Ann. Pure Appl. Logic 164, No. 2, 67--85 (2013; Zbl 1261.03148)]) if for every \(A \subseteq \theta,\) there is a transitive set \(M \models \mathrm{ZFC}\) with \(^\kappa\)\(M \subseteq M\) and \(A, \kappa, \theta \in M,\) and another transitive set \(N\) with an elementary embedding \(j: M \rightarrow N\) with critical point \(\kappa\) such that \(j(\kappa)> \theta\) and \(j''\theta \in N\). The authors prove, from suitable large cardinals, that any of the large cardinal hypotheses introduced above can be the least weakly compact cardinal, and even the least weakly compact cardinal can be simutaneously unfoldable, weakly measurable and nearly \(\theta\)-supercompact, for any desired ordinal \(\theta.\) One of the key tools in their proof is a result of \textit{K. Kunen} [J. Symb. Log. 43, 65--76 (1978; Zbl 0395.03031)] which says that for an inaccessible cardinal \(\kappa,\) the forcing notion \(\mathrm{Add}(\kappa, 1),\) the Cohen forcing for adding a new Cohen subset to \(\kappa,\) is forcing isomorphic to a two step iteration \(S_\kappa \ast \dot{T}\), where \(S_\kappa\) adds a homogeneous \(\kappa\)-Souslin tree \(T\) and then we force with the tree itself. Thus, for example, if \(\kappa\) is measurable and indestructible under \(\mathrm{Add}(\kappa, 1),\) then we can find a submodel of \(V^{\mathrm{Add}(\kappa, 1)}\), namely \(V^{S_\kappa}\), in which \(\kappa\) is not even weakly compact but it becomes measurable after forcing with \(T\) over \(V^{S_\kappa}\). Let us briefly sketch the argument for making the least weakly compact cardinal unfoldable. So start with a strongly unfoldable cardinal (which is defined similar to an unfoldable cardinal with the extra assumption \(V_\theta \subseteq N\)) and the GCH. Do a reverse Easton iteration of length \(\kappa+1\), where at each ordinal \(\alpha < \kappa\) we force with \(\mathrm{Add}(\alpha, 1)\ast \dot{S}_\alpha\) if \(\alpha\) is inaccessible and with the trivial forcing otherwise. At step \(\kappa\) force with \(\mathrm{Add}(\kappa, \kappa^+).\) Then, the authors show that a strongly unfoldable embedding for \(\kappa\) from the ground model can be lifted to an unfoldable embedding in the extension (to find the suitable guiding generic needed for the lifting, Kunen's result is used). It is also clear that there are no weakly compact cardinals below \(\kappa,\) as \(\alpha\)-Souslin trees are added at all inaccessible cardinals \(\alpha\) below \(\kappa.\) Thus, \(\kappa\) is the least weakly compact cardinal and unfoldable in the extension. Various modifications of the above proof are used to obtain the other results concerning weakly measurable cardinals or nearly \(\theta\)-supercompact cardinals. The author also proves several global results for the class of weakly compact cardinals.