Erdős cardinal

In mathematics, an Erdős cardinal, also called a partition cardinal is a certain kind of large cardinal number introduced by Paul Erdős and András Hajnal (1958).

A cardinal ${\displaystyle \kappa }$ is called ${\displaystyle \alpha }$-Erdős if for every function ${\displaystyle f:\kappa ^{<\omega }\to \{0,1\}}$, there is a set of order type ${\displaystyle \alpha }$ that is homogeneous for ${\displaystyle f}$. In the notation of the partition calculus, ${\displaystyle \kappa }$ is ${\displaystyle \alpha }$-Erdős if

${\displaystyle \kappa \rightarrow (\alpha )^{<\omega }}$.

The existence of zero sharp implies that the constructible universe ${\displaystyle L}$ satisfies "for every countable ordinal ${\displaystyle \alpha }$, there is an ${\displaystyle \alpha }$-Erdős cardinal". In fact, for every indiscernible ${\displaystyle \kappa }$, ${\displaystyle L_{\kappa }}$ satisfies "for every ordinal ${\displaystyle \alpha }$, there is an ${\displaystyle \alpha }$-Erdős cardinal in ${\displaystyle \mathrm {Coll} (\omega ,\alpha )}$" (the Lévy collapse to make ${\displaystyle \alpha }$ countable).

However, the existence of an ${\displaystyle \omega _{1}}$-Erdős cardinal implies existence of zero sharp. If ${\displaystyle f}$ is the satisfaction relation for ${\displaystyle L}$ (using ordinal parameters), then the existence of zero sharp is equivalent to there being an ${\displaystyle \omega _{1}}$-Erdős ordinal with respect to ${\displaystyle f}$. Thus, the existence of an ${\displaystyle \omega _{1}}$-Erdős cardinal implies that the axiom of constructibility is false.

The least ${\displaystyle \omega }$-Erdős cardinal is not weakly compact,^{[1]p. 39.} nor is the least ${\displaystyle \omega _{1}}$-Erdős cardinal.^{[1]p. 39}

If ${\displaystyle \kappa }$ is ${\displaystyle \alpha }$-Erdős, then it is ${\displaystyle \alpha }$-Erdős in every transitive model satisfying "${\displaystyle \alpha }$ is countable."

• List of large cardinal properties