Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory with atoms

Idea

ZFA is a variant of the material set theory ZF which allows for objects, called atoms or urelements (hence the alternative name ZFU), which may be members of sets, but are not made up of other elements. ZFA featured in early independence proofs, notably Fraenkel-Mostowski permutation models, for example showing AC is independent of the rest of the axioms of ZFA.

Zermelo's original 1908 axiomatisation of set theory included atoms, but they were soon discarded as a foundational approach as they could be modeled inside of atomless set theory.

Definition

There are two possible approaches to formulating ZFA. In both cases, we can further require that the axiom of choice is satisfied, and obtain ZFCA.

Empty atoms

In this approach, atoms are empty. We start by adding an additional unary predicate $A$, where we interpret $A(x)$ as saying “$x$ is an atom”. We write $(\forall set x)$ to mean $\forall x, \neg A(x) \Rightarrow$, and similarly write $(\forall atom x)$ to mean $\forall x, A(x) \Rightarrow$.

Then the axiom of extensionality says

and the axiom of empty set says

We also add the axiom that says atoms are empty:

Sometimes it is also convenient to assume that we have a set of atoms:

but in some cases, we might also like to consider models with a proper class of atoms.

Reflexive/Quine atoms

We can give up on the axiom of foundation, and introduce the urelements as reflexive sets, ie. sets $x$ such that $x = \{x\}$. In place of the axiom of foundation, we can have an axiom of weak foundation, where we require the existence of a set A such that every element of A is reflexive, and the cumulative hierarchy built up from $A$ is the whole universe. In other words, if we define

• $R(0) = A$,

• $R(\alpha + 1) = P(R(\alpha))$ for any ordinal $\alpha$,

• $R(\lambda) = \bigcup_{\gamma \lt \lambda} R(\gamma)$ for $\lambda$ a limit ordinal,

then $V = \bigcup_\alpha R(\alpha)$.

Models

Fraenkel–Mostowski models

By allowing atoms in our models, we lend ourselves to the method of Fraenkel-Mostowski models, where we can obtain models in which the axiom of choice fails by imposing some symmetry on the atoms (so that we cannot uniformly pick an atom out of many). Such models are closely related to categories of G-sets.

Related concepts

• ZFC
• Fraenkel-Mostowski models
• permutation model
• urelements