Cantor’s theorem and the empty set

elementary-set-theorysolution-verification

I understand the standard proof that there exists no surjection $f: X \to \mathcal{P}(X)$, but I'm not able to tell whether it deals with the case that $X = \emptyset$ or whether I need to rule this out separately.

If I want to prove that $|X| < |\mathcal{P}(X)|$, I need to find an injection $X \hookrightarrow \mathcal{P}(X)$. In this case, I'm almost certain that I need to rule out the empty set case first. If $X = \emptyset$, then the only map $X \to \mathcal{P}(X)$ is the empty function with codomain $\{\emptyset\}$, which is vacuously injective. Otherwise, I send $x \mapsto \{x\}$ for each $x \in X$, which is injective.

The proof that no surjection is tougher for me to rule out the case of the empty set.

Suppose $f: X \to \mathcal{P}(X)$ is a surjection. Define $B = \{x \in X \mid x \not \in f(x)\}$. As $f$ is surjective, $f(a) = B$ for some $a \in X$. But then $a \in B \iff a \not \in f(a) \iff a \not \in B$, which is a contradiction.

If $X$ is empty, then $B$ is empty. I can't find an $a \in X$, so that away is ruled out, but this may be a case where the statement is "vacuously" true because the definition of surjectivity starts with "for all."

Best Answer

  • I don't see why you would need to make a special case for an injection $\emptyset\to \{\emptyset\}$, because the function $f:\emptyset\to\{\emptyset\}$ such that $f(x)=\{x\}$ for all $x\in\emptyset$ is already the empty map.

  • Existence of some $a\in X$ such that $f(a)=\{x\in X\,:\, x\notin f(x)\}$ comes from the assumption of $f$ being surjective. In specific cases this may result in a contradiction by other means in addition to proving that $a\in f(a)\leftrightarrow a\notin f(a)$, but the general way is still valid here: the same proof $$\exists f\text{ surjective}\Rightarrow \exists f\text{ surjective},\exists a\in X, (a\in f(a)\leftrightarrow a\notin f(a))$$ works for $X=\emptyset$ as well.

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