Metamath Proof Explorer


Axiom ax-ac

Description: Axiom of Choice. The Axiom of Choice (AC) is usually considered an extension of ZF set theory rather than a proper part of it. It is sometimes considered philosophically controversial because it asserts the existence of a set without telling us what the set is. ZF set theory that includes AC is called ZFC.

The unpublished version given here says that given any set x , there exists a y that is a collection of unordered pairs, one pair for each nonempty member of x . One entry in the pair is the member of x , and the other entry is some arbitrary member of that member of x . See the rewritten version ac3 for a more detailed explanation. Theorem ac2 shows an equivalent written compactly with restricted quantifiers.

This version was specifically crafted to be short when expanded to primitives. Kurt Maes' 5-quantifier version ackm is slightly shorter when the biconditional of ax-ac is expanded into implication and negation. In axac3 we allow the constant CHOICE to represent the Axiom of Choice; this simplifies the representation of theorems like gchac (the Generalized Continuum Hypothesis implies the Axiom of Choice).

Standard textbook versions of AC are derived as ac8 , ac5 , and ac7 . The Axiom of Regularity ax-reg (among others) is used to derive our version from the standard ones; this reverse derivation is shown as Theorem dfac2b . Equivalents to AC are the well-ordering theorem weth and Zorn's lemma zorn . See ac4 for comments about stronger versions of AC.

In order to avoid uses of ax-reg for derivation of AC equivalents, we provide ax-ac2 (due to Kurt Maes), which is equivalent to the standard AC of textbooks. The derivation of ax-ac2 from ax-ac is shown by Theorem axac2 , and the reverse derivation by axac . Therefore, new proofs should normally use ax-ac2 instead. (New usage is discouraged.) (Contributed by NM, 18-Jul-1996)

Ref Expression
Assertion ax-ac ∃ 𝑦 ∀ 𝑧 ∀ 𝑤 ( ( 𝑧 ∈ 𝑤 ∧ 𝑤 ∈ 𝑥 ) → ∃ 𝑣 ∀ 𝑢 ( ∃ 𝑡 ( ( 𝑢 ∈ 𝑤 ∧ 𝑤 ∈ 𝑡 ) ∧ ( 𝑢 ∈ 𝑡 ∧ 𝑡 ∈ 𝑦 ) ) ↔ 𝑢 = 𝑣 ) )

Detailed syntax breakdown

Step Hyp Ref Expression
0 vy ⊢ 𝑦
1 vz ⊢ 𝑧
2 vw ⊢ 𝑤
3 1 cv ⊢ 𝑧
4 2 cv ⊢ 𝑤
5 3 4 wcel ⊢ 𝑧 ∈ 𝑤
6 vx ⊢ 𝑥
7 6 cv ⊢ 𝑥
8 4 7 wcel ⊢ 𝑤 ∈ 𝑥
9 5 8 wa ⊢ ( 𝑧 ∈ 𝑤 ∧ 𝑤 ∈ 𝑥 )
10 vv ⊢ 𝑣
11 vu ⊢ 𝑢
12 vt ⊢ 𝑡
13 11 cv ⊢ 𝑢
14 13 4 wcel ⊢ 𝑢 ∈ 𝑤
15 12 cv ⊢ 𝑡
16 4 15 wcel ⊢ 𝑤 ∈ 𝑡
17 14 16 wa ⊢ ( 𝑢 ∈ 𝑤 ∧ 𝑤 ∈ 𝑡 )
18 13 15 wcel ⊢ 𝑢 ∈ 𝑡
19 0 cv ⊢ 𝑦
20 15 19 wcel ⊢ 𝑡 ∈ 𝑦
21 18 20 wa ⊢ ( 𝑢 ∈ 𝑡 ∧ 𝑡 ∈ 𝑦 )
22 17 21 wa ⊢ ( ( 𝑢 ∈ 𝑤 ∧ 𝑤 ∈ 𝑡 ) ∧ ( 𝑢 ∈ 𝑡 ∧ 𝑡 ∈ 𝑦 ) )
23 22 12 wex ⊢ ∃ 𝑡 ( ( 𝑢 ∈ 𝑤 ∧ 𝑤 ∈ 𝑡 ) ∧ ( 𝑢 ∈ 𝑡 ∧ 𝑡 ∈ 𝑦 ) )
24 10 cv ⊢ 𝑣
25 13 24 wceq ⊢ 𝑢 = 𝑣
26 23 25 wb ⊢ ( ∃ 𝑡 ( ( 𝑢 ∈ 𝑤 ∧ 𝑤 ∈ 𝑡 ) ∧ ( 𝑢 ∈ 𝑡 ∧ 𝑡 ∈ 𝑦 ) ) ↔ 𝑢 = 𝑣 )
27 26 11 wal ⊢ ∀ 𝑢 ( ∃ 𝑡 ( ( 𝑢 ∈ 𝑤 ∧ 𝑤 ∈ 𝑡 ) ∧ ( 𝑢 ∈ 𝑡 ∧ 𝑡 ∈ 𝑦 ) ) ↔ 𝑢 = 𝑣 )
28 27 10 wex ⊢ ∃ 𝑣 ∀ 𝑢 ( ∃ 𝑡 ( ( 𝑢 ∈ 𝑤 ∧ 𝑤 ∈ 𝑡 ) ∧ ( 𝑢 ∈ 𝑡 ∧ 𝑡 ∈ 𝑦 ) ) ↔ 𝑢 = 𝑣 )
29 9 28 wi ⊢ ( ( 𝑧 ∈ 𝑤 ∧ 𝑤 ∈ 𝑥 ) → ∃ 𝑣 ∀ 𝑢 ( ∃ 𝑡 ( ( 𝑢 ∈ 𝑤 ∧ 𝑤 ∈ 𝑡 ) ∧ ( 𝑢 ∈ 𝑡 ∧ 𝑡 ∈ 𝑦 ) ) ↔ 𝑢 = 𝑣 ) )
30 29 2 wal ⊢ ∀ 𝑤 ( ( 𝑧 ∈ 𝑤 ∧ 𝑤 ∈ 𝑥 ) → ∃ 𝑣 ∀ 𝑢 ( ∃ 𝑡 ( ( 𝑢 ∈ 𝑤 ∧ 𝑤 ∈ 𝑡 ) ∧ ( 𝑢 ∈ 𝑡 ∧ 𝑡 ∈ 𝑦 ) ) ↔ 𝑢 = 𝑣 ) )
31 30 1 wal ⊢ ∀ 𝑧 ∀ 𝑤 ( ( 𝑧 ∈ 𝑤 ∧ 𝑤 ∈ 𝑥 ) → ∃ 𝑣 ∀ 𝑢 ( ∃ 𝑡 ( ( 𝑢 ∈ 𝑤 ∧ 𝑤 ∈ 𝑡 ) ∧ ( 𝑢 ∈ 𝑡 ∧ 𝑡 ∈ 𝑦 ) ) ↔ 𝑢 = 𝑣 ) )
32 31 0 wex ⊢ ∃ 𝑦 ∀ 𝑧 ∀ 𝑤 ( ( 𝑧 ∈ 𝑤 ∧ 𝑤 ∈ 𝑥 ) → ∃ 𝑣 ∀ 𝑢 ( ∃ 𝑡 ( ( 𝑢 ∈ 𝑤 ∧ 𝑤 ∈ 𝑡 ) ∧ ( 𝑢 ∈ 𝑡 ∧ 𝑡 ∈ 𝑦 ) ) ↔ 𝑢 = 𝑣 ) )