Paradoxical set
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In set theory, a paradoxical set is a set that has a paradoxical decomposition. A paradoxical decomposition of a set is two families of disjoint subsets, along with appropriate group actions that act on some universe (of which the set in question is a subset), such that each partition can be mapped back onto the entire set using only finitely many distinct functions (or compositions thereof) to accomplish the mapping. A set that admits such a paradoxical decomposition where the actions belong to a group is called -paradoxical or paradoxical with respect to .
Paradoxical sets exist as a consequence of the Axiom of Infinity. Admitting infinite classes as sets is sufficient to allow paradoxical sets.
Definition
Suppose a group acts on a set . Then is -paradoxical if there exists some disjoint subsets and some group elements such that:[1]
and
Examples
Free group
The Free group F on two generators a,b has the decomposition where e is the identity word and is the collection of all (reduced) words that start with the letter i. This is a paradoxical decomposition because
Banach–Tarski paradox
The most famous example of paradoxical sets is the Banach–Tarski paradox, which divides the sphere into paradoxical sets for the special orthogonal group. This result depends on the axiom of choice.
See also
- Pathological (mathematics)
References
- ^ Wagon, Stan; Tomkowicz, Grzegorz (2016). The Banach–Tarski Paradox (Second ed.). ISBN 978-1-107-04259-9.