A MODEL WITH A PRECIPITOUS IDEAL, BUT NO NORMAL PRECIPITOUS IDEAL

Starting with a measurable cardinal κ of the Mitchell order κ++ we construct a model with a precipitous ideal on ℵ1 but without normal precipitous ideals. This answers a question by T. Jech and K. Prikry. In the constructed model there are no Q-point precipitous filters on ℵ1, i. e. those isomorphic to extensions of Cubℵ1.

Increasing u2 by a stationary set preserving forcing

We show that if I is a precipitous ideal on ω1 and if θ > ω1 is a regular cardinal, then there is a forcing ℙ = ℙ(I, θ) which preserves the stationarity of all I-positive sets such that in Vℙ, ⟨Hθ; ∈, I⟩ is a generic iterate of a countable structure ⟨M; ∈, Ī⟩. This shows that if the nonstationary ideal on ω1 is precipitous and exists, then there is a stationary set preserving forcing which increases . Moreover, if Bounded Martin's Maximum holds and the nonstationary ideal on ω1 is precipitous, then .

Some pathological examples of precipitous ideals

We construct a model with an indecisive precipitous ideal and a model with a precipitous ideal with a non precipitous normal ideal below it. Such kind of examples were previously given by M. Foreman [2] and R. Laver [4] respectively. The present examples differ in two ways: first- they use only a measurable cardinal and second- the ideals are over a cardinal. Also a precipitous ideal without a normal ideal below it is constructed. It is shown in addition that if there is a precipitous ideal over a cardinal κ such that• after the forcing with its positive sets the cardinality of κ remains above ℵ1• there is no a normal precipitous ideal then there is 0†.

Increasing δ21 and Namba-style forcing

We isolate a forcing which increases the value of while preserving ω1 under the assumption that there is a precipitous ideal on ω1 and a measurable cardinal.

On generic elementary embeddings

Suppose that I is a precipitous ideal over a cardinal κ and j is a generic embedding of I. What is the nature of j? If we assume the existence of a supercompact cardinal then, by Foreman, Magidor and Shelah [FMS], it is quite unclear where some of such j's are coming from. On the other hand, if ¬∃κ0(κ) = κ++, then, by Mitchell [Mi], the restriction of j to the core model is its iterated ultrapower by measures of it. A natural question arising here is if each iterated ultrapower of can be obtained as the restriction of a generic embedding of a precipitous ideal. Notice that there are obvious limitations. Thus the ultrapower of by a measure over λ cannot be obtained as a generic embedding by a precipitous ideal over κ ≠ λ. But if we fix κ and use iterated ultrapowers of which are based on κ, then the answer is positive. Namely a stronger statement is true:Theorem. Let τ be an ordinal and κ a measurable cardinal. There exists a generic extension V* of V so that NSℵ1 (the nonstationary ideal on ℵ1) is precipitous and, for every iterated ultrapower i of V of length ≤ τ by measures of V based on κ, there exists a stationary set forcing “the generic ultrapower restricted to V is i”.Our aim will be to prove this theorem. We assume that the reader is familiar with the paper [JMMiP] by Jech, Magidor, Mitchell and Prikry. We shall use the method of that paper for constructing precipitous ideals. Ideas of Levinski [L] for blowing up 2ℵ1 preserving precipitousness and of our own earlier paper [Gi] for linking together indiscernibles will be used also.

On a condition for Cohen extensions which preserve precipitous ideals

T. Jech and K. Prikry introduced the concept of precipitous ideals as a counterpart of measurable cardinals for small cardinals (Jech and Prikry [1]). To get a precipitous ideal on ℵ1( W. Mitchell used the Cohen extension by the standard Levy collapse that makes κ = ℵ1, where κ is a measurable cardinal in the ground model (Jech, Magidor, Mitchell and Prikry [2]). His proof essentially used the fact that , where is the notion of forcing of Levy collapse and j is the elementary embedding obtained by a normal ultrafilter on κ.On the other hand, we know that has the κ-chain condition. In this paper, we show that the κ-chain condition for notions of forcing plays an essential role for preserving normal precipitous ideals. Namely,Theorem 1. Let κ be a regular uncountable cardinal and I a normal ideal on κ. Let be a notion of forcing with the κ-chain condition. Then, I is precipitous iff ⊩“the ideal on κ generated by I is precipitous”.As an application of Theorem 1, we have the following theorem.Theorem 2. Let κ be a regular uncountable cardinal, and Γ be a κ-saturated normal ideal on κ. Then, {a < κ; the ideal of thin sets on a is precipitous} has either Γ-measure one or Γ-measure zero, and the ideal of thin sets on κ is precipitous iff {α< κ; the ideal of thin sets on α is precipitous) has Γ-measure one.

Precipitous ideals

The properties of small cardinals such as ℵ1 tend to be much more complex than those of large cardinals, so that properties of ℵ1 may often be better understood by viewing them as large cardinal properties. In this paper we show that the existence of a precipitous ideal on ℵ1 is essentially the same as measurability.If I is an ideal on P(κ) then R(I) is the notion of forcing whose conditions are sets x ∈ P(κ)/I, with x ≤ x′ if x ⊆ x′. Thus a set D R(I)-generic over the ground model V is an ultrafilter on P(κ) ⋂ V extending the filter dual to I. The ideal I is said to be precipitous if κ ⊨R(I)(Vκ/D is wellfounded).One example of a precipitous ideal is the ideal dual to a κ-complete ultrafilter U on κ. This example is trivial since the generic ultrafilter D is equal to U and is already in the ground model. A generic set may be viewed as one that can be worked with in the ground model even though it is not actually in the ground model, so we might expect that cardinals such as ℵ1 that cannot be measurable still might have precipitous ideals, and such ideals might correspond closely to measures.