Initial self-embeddings of models of set theory

Abstract: By a classical theorem of Harvey Friedman (1973), every countable nonstandard model

m a t h c a l M

of a sufficiently strong fragment of ZF has a proper rank-initial self-embedding

j

, i.e.,

j

is a self-embedding of

m a t h c a l M

such that

j [m a t h c a l M] s u b s e t n e q m a t h c a l M

, and the ordinal rank of each member of

j [m a t h c a l M]

is less than the ordinal rank of each element of

m a t h c a l M s e t m i n u s j [m a t h c a l M]

. Here we investigate the larger family of proper initial-embeddings

j

of models

m a t h c a l M

of fragments of set theory, where the image of

j

is a transitive submodel of

m a t h c a l M

.

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