The bounded proper forcing axiom and well orderings of the reals

We show that the bounded proper forcing axiom BPFA implies that there is a well-ordering of P(ω_1) which is Δ_1 definable with parameter a subset of ω_1. Our proof shows that if BPFA holds then any inner model of the universe of sets that correctly computes N_2 and also satisfies BPFA must contain all subsets of ω_1. We show as applications how to build minimal models of BPFA and that BPFA implies that the decision problem for the Härtig quantifier is not lightface projective

The Complexity of Simultaneous Geometric Graph Embedding

Given a collection of planar graphs $G_1,\dots,G_k$ on the same set $V$ of $n$ vertices, the simultaneous geometric embedding (with mapping) problem, or simply $k$-SGE, is to find a set $P$ of $n$ points in the plane and a bijection $\phi: V \to P$ such that the induced straight-line drawings of $G_1,\dots,G_k$ under $\phi$ are all plane. This problem is polynomial-time equivalent to weak rectilinear realizability of abstract topological graphs, which Kyn\v{c}l (doi:10.1007/s00454-010-9320-x) proved to be complete for $\exists\mathbb{R}$, the existential theory of the reals. Hence the problem $k$-SGE is polynomial-time equivalent to several other problems in computational geometry, such as recognizing intersection graphs of line segments or finding the rectilinear crossing number of a graph. We give an elementary reduction from the pseudoline stretchability problem to $k$-SGE, with the property that both numbers $k$ and $n$ are linear in the number of pseudolines. This implies not only the $\exists\mathbb{R}$-hardness result, but also a $2^{2^{\Omega (n)}}$ lower bound on the minimum size of a grid on which any such simultaneous embedding can be drawn. This bound is tight. Hence there exists such collections of graphs that can be simultaneously embedded, but every simultaneous drawing requires an exponential number of bits per coordinates. The best value that can be extracted from Kyn\v{c}l's proof is only $2^{2^{\Omega (\sqrt{n})}}$

Definable MAD families and forcing axioms

We show that under the Bounded Proper Forcing Axiom and an anti-large cardinal assumption, there is a $\mathbf{\Pi}^1_2$ MAD family.Comment: 13 page

Incompatible bounded category forcing axioms

We introduce bounded category forcing axioms for well-behaved classes $\Gamma$. These are strong forms of bounded forcing axioms which completely decide the theory of some initial segment of the universe $H_{\lambda_\Gamma^+}$ modulo forcing in $\Gamma$, for some cardinal $\lambda_\Gamma$ naturally associated to $\Gamma$. These axioms naturally extend projective absoluteness for arbitrary set-forcing--in this situation $\lambda_\Gamma=\omega$--to classes $\Gamma$ with $\lambda_\Gamma>\omega$. Unlike projective absoluteness, these higher bounded category forcing axioms do not follow from large cardinal axioms, but can be forced under mild large cardinal assumptions on $V$. We also show the existence of many classes $\Gamma$ with $\lambda_\Gamma=\omega_1$, and giving rise to pairwise incompatible theories for $H_{\omega_2}$.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1805.0873