Factorials of infinite cardinals in ZF

Abstract

For a set $x$, let $\mathcal{S}(x)$ be the set of all permutations of $x$. We study several aspects of this notion in $\mathsf{ZF}$. The main results are as follows: (1) $\mathsf{ZF}$ proves that for all sets $x$, if $\mathcal{S}(x)$ is Dedekind infinite, then there are no finite-to-one maps from $\mathcal{S}(x)$ into ${\mathcal{S}}_{\mathrm{fin}}(x)$, where ${\mathcal{S}}_{\mathrm{fin}}(x)$ is the set of all permutations of $x$ which move only finitely many elements. (2) $\mathsf{ZF}$ proves that for all sets $x$, the cardinality of $\mathcal{S}(x)$ is strictly greater than that of $[x{]}^2$. (3) It is consistent with $\mathsf{ZF}$ that there exists an infinite set $x$ such that the cardinality of $\mathcal{S}(x)$ is strictly less than that of $[x{]}^3$. (4) It is consistent with $\mathsf{ZF}$ that there exists an infinite set $x$ such that there is a finite-to-one map from $\mathcal{S}(x)$ into $x$.

50 pages

Cited by in corpus (4)

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