Maximal sets without Choice

Abstract

We show that it is consistent relative to ZF, that there is no well-ordering of $\mathbb{R}$ while a wide class of special sets of reals such as Hamel bases, transcendence bases, Vitali sets or Bernstein sets exists. To be more precise, we can assume that every projective hypergraph on $\mathbb{R}$ has a maximal independent set, among a few other things. For example, we get transversals for all projective equivalence relations. Moreover, this is possible while either ${\mathsf{DC}}_{{\omega }_1}$ holds, or countable choice for reals fails. Assuming the consistency of an inaccessible cardinal, "projective" can even be replaced with "$L(\mathbb{R})$". This vastly strengthens earlier consistency results in the literature.

16 pages