Noah Schoem : How to add reals: why the Continuum Hypothesis is Independent of ZFC

Posted by Benjamin Gould , part of the Graduate Student Colloquium.

At

Feb. 19, 2020, 5 p.m.

In

636 SEO

Abstract

In 1963, Paul Cohen introduced the method of forcing, definitively proving that the longstanding open question about the size of the real numbers is undecidable. Although first formulated by Cantor and later popularized by Hilbert, neither would have anticipated the result, or the method used to obtain it. We will exposit a variation on Cohen's method to usher new real numbers into existence and change the number of real numbers. No set theory background will be assumed.

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