Room 327

Logic Seminar: p equals t Part I

R Ramanujam

IMSc

In July 2017, Malliaris and Shelah were awarded the Hausdorff prize for solving two longstanding open problems in set theory and model theory. One of these is the surprising assertion that two cardinals p and t, defined in terms of subsets of the natural numbers, are equal under ZFC. Given the independence of the Continuum Hypothesis, this led to popular interest, with articles in Quanta and Scientific American.

This seminar is an attempt to explain the result and why it is interesting.