Department of Mathematics
Set Theory, Independence and Absoluteness.
Paul Larson
Fields Institute, Toronto
A sentence is independent of a set of axioms if there is no proof from the axioms of the sentence or its negation. Our primary means for demonstrating independence, forcing, was invented by Paul Cohen in the early 1960's, and has been used since then to show that independence is widespread in set theory. Results in the other direction, limiting the independence phenomenon, are called absoluteness results. I will briefly sketch the history of these two lines of research, leading up to my own contributions. No previous knowledge of set theory or logic will be assumed.
All interested persons are welcome.
The talk will be accessible to upper class students.