Set theory. (Q2904376)

This is an important textbook in advanced set theory, comparable to \textit{T. Jech}'s [Set theory. The third millenium edition. Berlin: Springer (2003; Zbl 1007.03002)] and to [\textit{M. Foreman} (ed.) and \textit{A. Kanamori} (ed.), Handbook of set theory. In 3 volumes. Dordrecht: Springer (2010; Zbl 1197.03001)]. It assumes expert knowledge of elementary axiomatic set theory (for example, from the author's textbook [Set theory. An introduction to independence proofs. Amsterdam, New York, Oxford: North-Holland Publishing Company (1980; Zbl 0443.03021)]) and model theory. There are five chapters.NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINE Chapter I, labeled ``Background material'', starts with a short discussion about the author's conception of the formalist philosophy of mathematics and introduces the Zermelo-Fraenkel axiom system, followed by a treatment of many of the basic topics (including ordinals, induction, recursion, uncountable cardinals, the axiom of choice, and a few results in model theory and recursion theory).NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINE Chapter II, ``Easy consistency proofs'', starts by proving the relative consistency of the Axiom of Foundation, and then derives the Reflection Theorem. This is followed by a nice treatment of constructible sets and \(V = L\), and then by the definition of ordinal-definable sets and a sketch of the relative consistency of ZFC. The chapter concludes with a treatment of set theory with classes. NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINE Chapter III, ``Infinitary combinatorics'', has much more meat to it: the countable chain condition, Martin's Axiom, trees, club filters, the diamond principles, and the theory of elementary submodels.NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINE Chapter IV contains a nice exposition of forcing and some of its applications, including the independence of the axiom of choice.NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINE Chapter V, ``Iterated forcing'', has some sophisticated applications, especially to some independence proofs involving Martin's Axiom. It ends with a relatively modest exposition of the Proper Forcing Axiom. Unfortunately, we have not succeeded in presenting an adequate summary of the rich results that can be found in this book.