Every countable model of set theory embeds into its own constructible universe

The main theorem of this article is that every countable model of set theory M, including every well-founded model, is isomorphic to a submodel of its own constructible universe. In other words, there is an embedding $j:M\to L^M$ that is elementary for quantifier-free assertions. The proof uses universal digraph combinatorics, including an acyclic version of the countable random digraph, which I call the countable random Q-graded digraph, and higher analogues arising as uncountable Fraisse limits, leading to the hypnagogic digraph, a set-homogeneous, class-universal, surreal-numbers-graded acyclic class digraph, closely connected with the surreal numbers. The proof shows that $L^M$ contains a submodel that is a universal acyclic digraph of rank $Ord^M$. The method of proof also establishes that the countable models of set theory are linearly pre-ordered by embeddability: for any two countable models of set theory, one of them is isomorphic to a submodel of the other. Indeed, they are pre-well-ordered by embedability in order-type exactly $\omega_1+1$. Specifically, the countable well-founded models are ordered by embeddability in accordance with the heights of their ordinals; every shorter model embeds into every taller model; every model of set theory $M$ is universal for all countable well-founded binary relations of rank at most $Ord^M$; and every ill-founded model of set theory is universal for all countable acyclic binary relations. Finally, strengthening a classical theorem of Ressayre, the same proof method shows that if $M$ is any nonstandard model of PA, then every countable model of set theory---in particular, every model of ZFC---is isomorphic to a submodel of the hereditarily finite sets $HF^M$ of $M$. Indeed, $HF^M$ is universal for all countable acyclic binary relations.Comment: 25 pages, 2 figures. Questions and commentary can be made at http://jdh.hamkins.org/every-model-embeds-into-own-constructible-universe. (v2 adds a reference and makes minor corrections) (v3 includes further changes, and removes the previous theorem 15, which was incorrect.

Graphs, permutations and topological groups

Various connections between the theory of permutation groups and the theory of topological groups are described. These connections are applied in permutation group theory and in the structure theory of topological groups. The first draft of these notes was written for lectures at the conference Totally disconnected groups, graphs and geometry in Blaubeuren, Germany, 2007.Comment: 39 pages (The statement of Krophollers conjecture (item 4.30) has been corrected

Disimplicial arcs, transitive vertices, and disimplicial eliminations

In this article we deal with the problems of finding the disimplicial arcs of a digraph and recognizing some interesting graph classes defined by their existence. A diclique of a digraph is a pair $V \to W$ of sets of vertices such that $v \to w$ is an arc for every $v \in V$ and $w \in W$. An arc $v \to w$ is disimplicial when $N^-(w) \to N^+(v)$ is a diclique. We show that the problem of finding the disimplicial arcs is equivalent, in terms of time and space complexity, to that of locating the transitive vertices. As a result, an efficient algorithm to find the bisimplicial edges of bipartite graphs is obtained. Then, we develop simple algorithms to build disimplicial elimination schemes, which can be used to generate bisimplicial elimination schemes for bipartite graphs. Finally, we study two classes related to perfect disimplicial elimination digraphs, namely weakly diclique irreducible digraphs and diclique irreducible digraphs. The former class is associated to finite posets, while the latter corresponds to dedekind complete finite posets.Comment: 17 pags., 3 fig