1 SUBTLE CARDINALS AND LINEAR ORDERINGS by Harvey M. Friedman Department of Mathematics Ohio State University
[email protected] www.math.ohio-state.edu/~friedman/ April 9, 1998 INTRODUCTION The subtle, almost ineffable, and ineffable cardinals were introduced in an unpublished 1971 manuscript of R. Jensen and K. Kunen, and a number of basic facts were proved there. These concepts were extended to that of k-subtle, k-almost ineffable, and k-ineffable cardinals in [Ba75], where a highly developed theory is presented. This important level of the large cardinal hierarchy was discussed in some detail in the survey article [KM78], section 20. However, discussion was omitted in the subsequent [Ka94]. This level is associated with the discrete/finite combinatorial independence results in [Fr98] and [Fr¥]. In section 1 we give a self contained treatment of the basic facts about this level of the large cardinal hierarchy, which were established in [Ba75]. In particular, we give a proof that the k-subtle, k-almost ineffable, and k-ineffable cardinals define three properly intertwined hierarchies with the same limit, lying strictly above Òtotal indescribabilityÓ and strictly below Òarrowing w.Ó The innovation here is presented in section 2, where we take a distinctly minimalist approach. Here the subtle cardinal hierarchy is characterized by very elementary properties that do not mention closed unbounded or stationary sets. This development culminates in a characterization of the hierarchy 2 by means of a striking universal second order property of linear orderings. As is usual in set theory, we treat cardinals and ordinals as von Neumann ordinals.