set theory Set theory is the branch of mathematical logic that studies Set (mathematics), sets, which can be informally described as collections of objects. Although objects of any kind can be collected into a set, set theory – as a branch of mathema ...

, a Jónsson cardinal (named after

Bjarni Jónsson Bjarni Jónsson (February 15, 1920 – September 30, 2016) was an Icelandic mathematician and logician working in universal algebra, lattice theory, model theory and set theory. He was emeritus distinguished professor of mathematics at Vanderb ...

) is a certain kind of

large cardinal In the mathematical field of set theory, a large cardinal property is a certain kind of property of transfinite cardinal numbers. Cardinals with such properties are, as the name suggests, generally very "large" (for example, bigger than the least ...

number. An

uncountable In mathematics, an uncountable set, informally, is an infinite set that contains too many elements to be countable. The uncountability of a set is closely related to its cardinal number: a set is uncountable if its cardinal number is larger tha ...

cardinal number In mathematics, a cardinal number, or cardinal for short, is what is commonly called the number of elements of a set. In the case of a finite set, its cardinal number, or cardinality is therefore a natural number. For dealing with the cas ...

κ is said to be ''Jónsson'' if for every function

f :

kappa Kappa (; uppercase Κ, lowercase κ or cursive ; , ''káppa'') is the tenth letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the voiceless velar plosive sound in Ancient and Modern Greek. In the system of Greek numerals, has a value of 20. It was d ...

\to \kappa there is a set

H

of order type

\kappa

such that for each

n

f

restricted to

n

-element subsets of

H

omits at least one value in

\kappa

. Every Rowbottom cardinal is Jónsson. By a theorem of Eugene M. Kleinberg, the theories ZFC + “there is a Rowbottom cardinal” and ZFC + “there is a Jónsson cardinal” are equiconsistent. William Mitchell proved, with the help of the Dodd-Jensen core model that the consistency of the existence of a Jónsson cardinal implies the consistency of the existence of a

Ramsey cardinal In mathematics, a Ramsey cardinal is a certain kind of large cardinal number introduced by and named after Frank P. Ramsey, whose theorem, called Ramsey's theorem establishes that ω enjoys a certain property that Ramsey cardinals generalize t ...

, so that the existence of Jónsson cardinals and the existence of Ramsey cardinals are equiconsistent.Mitchell, William J.: "Jonsson Cardinals, Erdos Cardinals and the Core Model", Journal of Symbolic Logic 64(3):1065-1086, 1999. In general, Jónsson cardinals need not be large cardinals in the usual sense: they can be

singular Singular may refer to: * Singular, the grammatical number that denotes a unit quantity, as opposed to the plural and other forms * Singular or sounder, a group of boar, see List of animal names * Singular (band), a Thai jazz pop duo *'' Singula ...

. But the existence of a singular Jónsson cardinal is equiconsistent to the existence of a

measurable cardinal In mathematics, a measurable cardinal is a certain kind of large cardinal number. In order to define the concept, one introduces a two-valued measure (mathematics), measure on a cardinal ''κ'', or more generally on any set. For a cardinal ''κ'', ...

. Using the

axiom of choice In mathematics, the axiom of choice, abbreviated AC or AoC, is an axiom of set theory. Informally put, the axiom of choice says that given any collection of non-empty sets, it is possible to construct a new set by choosing one element from e ...

, a lot of small cardinals (the

\aleph_n

, for instance) can be proved to be not Jónsson. Results like this need the axiom of choice, however: The

axiom of determinacy In mathematics, the axiom of determinacy (abbreviated as AD) is a possible axiom for set theory introduced by Jan Mycielski and Hugo Steinhaus in 1962. It refers to certain two-person topological games of length ω. AD states that every game o ...

does imply that for every positive natural number ''n'', the cardinal

\aleph_n

is Jónsson. A Jónsson algebra is an algebra with no proper subalgebras of the same cardinality. (They are unrelated to Jónsson–Tarski algebras). Here an algebra means a model for a language with a countable number of function symbols, in other words a set with a countable number of functions from finite products of the set to itself. A cardinal is a Jónsson cardinal if and only if there are no Jónsson algebras of that cardinality. The existence of Jónsson functions shows that if algebras are allowed to have infinitary operations, then there are no analogues of Jónsson cardinals.

References

* * Large cardinals {{settheory-stub