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478

VII. Cardinality

or
( )+ Card( 2) = 2
Thus,
(1) an alternative formulation of GCH is
+1 = 2
and
(2) we have just estimated a+ in general:
a+ 2a

VII.6. Conality; More Cardinal Arithmetic; Inaccessible Cardinals

How far can we stretch an ordinal by applying to it a function f ? That is,
given and a total function f : On, how big can the elements of ran( f )
be? Well, let be arbitrary. Dene f (0) = . Thus 1 = {0} is stretched, by f ,
to the arbitrarily large value . Clearly an uninspiring answer.
A much better question to ask, which leads to fruitful answers, is: how far
can we shrink a given ordinal by some total function, f ? That is, what is the
smallest such that f : and ran( f ) spreads as far to the right in as
possible?
More precisely, let us dene
VII.6.1 Denition (Conal Subsets). Let = A B, and < be an order on B
(hence also on A). We say that A is conal in B just in case for every b B
there is an a A such that b a, where, of course, x y means x < y x = y.

The set A above spreads as far to the right in B as possible. If , then

cannot be conal in in the above sense, unless = . For this reason we
have a somewhat different notion of conal in for ordinals.
VII.6.2 Denition. is conal in = 0 just in case there is a total function
f : such that ran( f ) is conal in in the sense of VII.6.1. We say that
f maps conally into , and that f : is a conal map (function).
The conality of an ordinal , cf(), is the smallest ordinal that is conal


in .
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