Ordinal Successor

🅟 Mar 01, 2026

  🅤 Apr 04, 2026

DEF-SUC. Ordinal Successor.

  • The successor of an ordinal $\alpha$ is the ordinal

    \[\alpha+1 = \alpha\cup\{\alpha\}.\]
  • $\alpha$ is a successor ordinal, if $\alpha=\beta+1$ for some ordinal $\beta$.


PROP-SUC-INF.

For any ordinal $\alpha$,

\[\alpha+1 = \inf\{\beta:\beta>\alpha\}.\]

PROP-SUC-CARD.

For any infinite ordinal $\alpha$,

\[\lvert\alpha+1\rvert = \lvert\alpha\rvert.\]

Proof.By PROP-EQU-SUB and Schröder-Bernstein Theorem, it is sufficient to show that $\lvert\alpha+1\rvert\leq\lvert\alpha\rvert$:

\[f : \alpha+1\to\alpha, \, \xi\mapsto\begin{cases} 0, & \text{if $\xi=\alpha$}; \\ \xi+1, & \text{if $\xi<\omega$}; \\ \xi, & \text{otherwise} \end{cases}\]

is an injection.