|
== Weakly inaccessible ==
Weakly inaccessible cardinals were first introduced by Hausdorff in an attempt to resolve the [[continuum hypothesis]].<ref>Hausdorff, Felix. "[https://gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/id/PPN235181684_0065?tify={%22pages%22:%5b453%5d} Grundzüge einer Theorie der geordneten Mengen]", Mathematische Annalen, vol. 65, num. 4 (1908), pp.435--505. DOI:10.1007/BF01451165.</ref> Cardinals \( \aleph_\alpha} \) for limit ordinal \( \alpha \) are known as limit cardinals, since applying the cardinal successor operator to a cardinal less than \( \aleph_\alpha \) yields a cardinal also less than \( \aleph_\alpha \). (citation for this being the etymology? {{citation needed}}) However, \( \aleph_\omega \) and many other limit cardinals have a short cofinal sequence, these cardinals are called singular. Formally, \( \kappa \) is singular if there is some sequence of \( < \kappa \) smaller ordinals whose limit is \( \kappa \). For example, \( \aleph_\omega \) is the limit of the sequence \( \aleph_0 \), \( \aleph_1 \), \( \aleph_2 \), ... which has length \( < \aleph_\omega \). Meanwhile, for cardinals such as \( \aleph_1 \), the limit of any countable sequence of countable ordinals is countable, so no system of normal functions can build up a sequence shorter than \( \aleph_1 \) cofinal in \( \aleph_1 \) - thus \( \aleph_1 \) is not singular - aka regular. We now call a cardinal \( \kappa \) weakly inaccessible if it is regular ''and'' a limit cardinal. You can see that if \( \kappa \) is weakly inaccessible and \( \alpha < \kappa \) then \( \aleph_\alpha < \kappa \) too, and then regularity gives that the limit of the length-\( \omega \) sequence \( \alpha \), \( \aleph_\alpha \), \( \aleph_{\aleph_\alpha} \), ... is less than \( \kappa \) as well.
The existence of weakly inaccessible cardinals is - surprisingly - not provable in \( \mathrm{ZFC} \), assuming its existence. We explain why in the third section. However, authors may typically assume their existence and use them in ordinal collapsing functions to describe ordinals equal to or greater than the [[Extended Buchholz ordinal|EBO]], since an inaccessible cardinal acts as a suitable "diagonalizer" over \( \alpha \mapsto \Omega_\alpha \), like how \( \Omega \) acts as a suitable diagonalizer in an ordinal collapsing function such as Madore's or Bachmann's.
|