Forcing Over Choiceless Models and Generic Absoluteness

Abstract

We develop a toolbox for forcing over arbitrary models of set theory without the axiom of choice. In particular, we introduce a variant of the countable chain condition and prove an iteration theorem that applies to many classical forcings such as Cohen forcing and random algebras. Our approach sidesteps the problem that forcing with the countable chain condition can collapse [Formula: see text] by a recent result of Karagila and Schweber. Using this, we show that adding many Cohen reals and random reals leads to different theories. This result is due to Woodin. Thus one can always change the theory of the universe by forcing, just like the continuum hypothesis and its negation can be obtained by forcing over arbitrary models with choice. We further study principles stipulating that the first-order theory of the universe remains the same in all generic extension by a fixed class of forcings. Extending a result of Woodin, we show that even for quite restricted classes such as the class of all finite support products of Cohen forcing or the class of all random algebras, this principle implies that all infinite cardinals have countable cofinality.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Journal of Mathematical Logic, 2026 · DOI ↗