Logic List Mailing Archive
list of problems in inner model theory (fwd)
Dear friends and colleagues,
We are compiling a list of open problems in inner model
theory. We hope and believe that such a list will be a
valuable resource for people working in the area. We
construe the existence of some such list as a proof of
emancipation of the field of inner model theory. The
purpose of this letter is to solicit contributions to this
list.
Contributions may consist of
(a) precise statements of one or more closely related
problems,
(b) a brief statement of the motivation--where the problems
come from, where you hope a solution will lead, and
(c) the main facts known, and references to the literature.
In other words, we'd like the sort of guide to the problem
which you might give to an interested thesis student
getting started on it.
The list is not meant as a document for the ages, but
rather as an active research tool. Contributions were and
will be posted at
www.logic.univie.ac.at/~rds/list.html ,
but we do not intend to publish it. We hope to
add to it, and update what is there, on a regular basis.
We will edit contributions, in order to organize the list
in a useful way, and maximize the information included on
each problem/problem set. IF YOU ONLY HAVE TIME TO SUBMIT
SOME PROBLEMS, WITHOUT THE BACKGROUND DISCUSSION, PLEASE
DO SO! We will attempt to fill in the rest, in consultation
with you or others.
It is by no means necessary that the problems you suggest
be due to you. You are welcome to stretch the definition
of inner model theory in a way that seems reasonable. (As
editors, we'll have to make that call in the end.) We shall
credit your submission to you, in the (very likely) case
we use it.
Please do not worry that your problems may be too easily
solved! Remember that all gaffes can be erased from
cyberspace forever with a few keystrokes. Besides, a short
list of well-known, difficult problems is not worth very much.
We hope that many problems on the list will be not so well
known and/or not so hard. We will include the well-known,
difficult problems, like those to do with iterability, but
hope to include more tractable sub-problems in those cases.
If, several years from now, none of the list problems have
been solved, it will mean the list was probably a bad one.
Because of the informal nature of the list, we will allow
"phony references", references to unpublished, or even
unwritten, work of x. (We ask you to check that x is claiming
to have done this work, if you can.) We hope such references
will help bring unpublished work to light.
Ceteris paribus, we'll add all of your submissions to our
list. In exceptional cases we allow ourselves to ask you
to withdraw some of your submissions. (We guess that such a
case will actually never come up.) It is more likely that
we would have to amalgamate double or triple submissions.
In that case, we shall attempt to reach a form acceptable
to all. You'll be able to find up-to-date information on
which problems have been submitted so far by visiting the
web site
www.logic.univie.ac.at/~rds/list.html .
We ask you to send your submissions to both our email accounts,
rds@logic.univie.ac.at and steel@math.berkeley.edu .
We prefer your submission to be in TeX, as this will simplify
our editing process.
This list is an experiment. The more of us put a little time
into it, the more likely it will actually be of value. We
thank in advance those of you who will contribute!
Best wishes,
Ralf Schindler,
John Steel
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Ralf Schindler Phone: +43-1-4277-50511
Institut fuer Formale Logik Fax: +43-1-4277-50599
Universitaet Wien E-mail: rds@logic.univie.ac.at
1090 Wien, Austria URL: http://www.logic.univie.ac.at/~rds/
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