# Vopěnka's principle and Vopěnka cardinals

Vopěnka's principle is a large cardinal axiom at the upper end of the large cardinal hierarchy that is particularly notable for its applications to category theory. In a set theoretic setting, the most common definition is the following:

For any language $\mathcal{L}$ and any proper class $C$ of $\mathcal{L}$-structures, there are distinct structures $M, N\in C$ and an elementary embedding $j:M\to N$.

For example, taking $\mathcal{L}$ to be the language with one unary and one binary predicate, we can consider for any ordinal $\eta$ the class of structures $\langle V_{\alpha+\eta},\{\alpha\},\in\rangle$, and conclude from Vopěnka's principle that a cardinal that is at least $\eta$-extendible exists. In fact if Vopěnka's principle holds then there are a proper class of extendible cardinals; bounding the strength of the axiom from above, we have that if $\kappa$ is almost huge, or even almost-high-jump, then $V_\kappa$ satisfies Vopěnka's principle.

## Formalizations

As stated above and from the point of view of ZFC, this is actually an axiom schema, as we quantify over proper classes, which from a purely ZFC perspective means definable proper classes. A somewhat stronger alternative is to view Vopěnka's principle as an axiom in second-order set theory capable to dealing with proper classes, such as von Neumann-Gödel-Bernays set theory. This is a strictly stronger assertion. [1] Finally, one may relativize the principle to a particular cardinal, leading to the concept of a Vopěnka cardinal.

## Vopěnka cardinals

An inaccessible cardinal $\kappa$ is a Vopěnka cardinal if and only if $V_\kappa$ satisfies Vopěnka's principle, that is, where we interpret the proper classes of $V_\kappa$ as the subsets of $V_\kappa$ of cardinality $\kappa$.

Perlmutter [1] proved that a cardinal is a Vopěnka cardinal if and only if it is a Woodin for supercompactness cardinal.

As we mentioned above, every almost huge cardinal is a Vopěnka cardinal.

## Equivalent statements

### $C^{(n)}$-extendible cardinals

The schema form of Vopěnka's principle is equivalent to the existence of a proper class of $C^{(n)}$-extendible cardinals for every $n$; indeed there is a level-by-level stratification of Vopěnka's principle, with Vopěnka's principle for a $\Sigma_{n+2}$-definable class corresponds to the existence of a $C^{(n)}$-extendible cardinal greater than the ranks of the parameters. [2]

### Strong Compactness of Logics

Vopěnka's principle is equivalent to the following statement about logics as well:

For every logic $\mathcal{L}$, there is a cardinal $\mu_{\mathcal{L}}$ such that for any language $\tau$ and any $\mathcal{L}(\tau)$-theory $T$, $T$ is satisfiable if and only if every $t\subseteq T$ such that $|t|<\mu_{\mathcal{L}}$ is satisfiable.

This $\mu_{\mathcal{L}}$ is called the strong compactness cardinal of $\mathcal{L}$. Vopěnka's principle therefore is equivalent to every logic having a strong compactness cardinal. This is very similar in definition to the Löwenheim–Skolem number of $\mathcal{L}$, although it is not guaranteed to exist.

Here are some examples of strong compactness cardinals of specific logics:

• If $\kappa\leq\lambda$ and $\lambda$ is strongly compact or $\aleph_0$, then the strong compactness cardinal of $\mathcal{L}_{\kappa,\kappa}$ is at most $\lambda$.
• Similarly, if $\kappa\leq\lambda$ and $\lambda$ is extendible, then for any natural number $n$, the strong compactness cardinal of $\mathcal{L}^n_{\kappa,\kappa}$ ($\mathcal{L}_{\kappa,\kappa}$ with $n+1$-th order logic) is at most $\lambda$. Therefore for any natural number $n$, the strong compactness cardinal of $n+1$-th order finitary logic is at most the least extendible cardinal.

### Elementary Embeddings Between Ranks

An equivalent statement to Vopěnka's principle is that for any proper class $C\subseteq ORD$, there are $\alpha\in C$, $\beta\in C$, and a nontrivial elementary embedding $j:\langle V_\alpha;\in,P\rangle\rightarrow\langle V_\beta;\in,P\rangle$. Vopěnka's principle quite obviously implies this. The reason the converse holds is because every elementary embedding can be "encoded" (in a sense) into one of these. For more information, see [3].

## Other points to note

Whilst Vopěnka cardinals are very strong in terms of consistency strength, a Vopěnka cardinal need not even be weakly compact. Indeed, the definition of a Vopěnka cardinal is a $\Pi^1_1$ statement over $V_\kappa$ (Vopěnka's principle itself is $\Pi^1_1$), and $\Pi^1_1$-indescribability is one of the equivalent definitions of weak compactness. Thus, the least weakly compact Vopěnka cardinal must have (many) other Vopěnka cardinals less than it.