Indiscernible sequences for extenders, and the singular cardinal hypothesis (Q5961496)

This paper establishes lower bounds for the consistency strength of instances of the failure of the singular cardinal hypothesis. The main result reads: Suppose \(\kappa\) is a singular strong limit and that \(2^\kappa\geq\lambda\), where \(\lambda\) is not the successor of a cardinal of cofinality at most \(\kappa\). Then \(\text{cf}(\kappa)>\omega\) implies \(o(\kappa)\geq\lambda\), and \(\text{cf}(\kappa)=\omega\) implies that either \(o(\kappa)\geq\lambda\) or else for each \(n\in\omega\) the set \(\{\alpha:K\models {o(\alpha)\geq\alpha^{+n}}\}\) is cofinal in \(\kappa\). The proof is based on a careful and well-written analysis of indiscernibles that come from an application of the covering lemma to certain sequences of extenders.