Descriptive Set Theory is the study of sets in separable, complete metric spaces that can be defined (or constructed), and so can be expected to have special properties not enjoyed by arbitrary pointsets. This subject was started by the French analysts at the turn of the 20th century, most prominently Lebesgue, and, initially, was concerned primarily with establishing regularity properties of Borel and Lebesgue measurable functions, and analytic, coanalytic, and projective sets. Its rapid development came to a halt in the late 1930s, primarily because it bumped against problems which were independent of classical axiomatic set theory. The field became very active again in the 1960s, with the introduction of strong set-theoretic hypotheses and methods from logic (especially recursion theory), which revolutionized it. This monograph develops Descriptive Set Theory systematically, from its classical roots to the modern ?effective? theory and the consequences of strong (especially determinacy) hypotheses. The book emphasizes the foundations of the subject, and it sets the stage for the dramatic results (established since the 1980s) relating large cardinals and determinacy or allowing applications of Descriptive Set Theory to classical mathematics. The book includes all the necessary background from (advanced) set theory, logic and recursion theory.

Descriptive set theory has been one of the main areas of research in set theory for almost a century. This text presents a largely balanced approach to the subject, which combines many elements of the different traditions. It includes a wide variety of examples, more than 400 exercises, and applications, in order to illustrate the general concepts and results of the theory.

These notes develop the theory of descriptive sets, leading up to a new proof of Louveau's separation theorem for analytic sets. A first course in mathematical logic and set theory is assumed, making this book suitable for advanced students and researchers.

This textbook gives an introduction to axiomatic set theory and examines the prominent questions that are relevant in current research in a manner that is accessible to students. Its main theme is the interplay of large cardinals, inner models, forcing and descriptive set theory. The following topics are covered: • Forcing and constructability • The Solovay-Shelah Theorem i.e. the equiconsistency of ‘every set of reals is Lebesgue measurable’ with one inaccessible cardinal • Fine structure theory and a modern approach to sharps • Jensen’s Covering Lemma • The equivalence of analytic determinacy with sharps • The theory of extenders and iteration trees • A proof of projective determinacy from Woodin cardinals. Set Theory requires only a basic knowledge of mathematical logic and will be suitable for advanced students and researchers.

Presents those methods of modern set theory most applicable to other areas of pure mathematics.

Since their inception, the Perspectives in Logic and Lecture Notes in Logic series have published seminal works by leading logicians. Many of the original books in the series have been unavailable for years, but they are now in print once again. In this volume, the fourth publication in the Lecture Notes in Logic series, Miller develops the necessary features of the theory of descriptive sets in order to present a new proof of Louveau's separation theorem for analytic sets. While some background in mathematical logic and set theory is assumed, the material is based on a graduate course given by the author at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and is thus accessible to students and researchers alike in these areas, as well as in mathematical analysis.

Ever since Paul Cohen's spectacular use of the forcing concept to prove the independence of the continuum hypothesis from the standard axioms of set theory, forcing has been seen by the general mathematical community as a subject of great intrinsic interest but one that is technically so forbidding that it is only accessible to specialists. In the past decade, a series of remarkable solutions to long-standing problems in C*-algebra using set-theoretic methods, many achieved by the author and his collaborators, have generated new interest in this subject. This is the first book aimed at explaining forcing to general mathematicians. It simultaneously makes the subject broadly accessible by explaining it in a clear, simple manner, and surveys advanced applications of set theory to mainstream topics.