I recently came to realize that worldly cardinals are not necessarily downward absolute to transitive inner models. That is, it can happen that a cardinal $\kappa$ is worldly in the full set-theoretic universe $V$, but not in some transitive inner model $W$, even when $W$ is itself a model of ZFC. The observation came out of some conversations I had with Alexander Block from Hamburg during his recent research visit to New York. Let me explain the argument.

A cardinal $\kappa$ is inaccessible, if it is an uncountable regular strong limit cardinal. The structure $V_{\kappa }$, consisting of the rank-initial segment of the set-theoretic universe up to $\kappa$, which can be generated from the empty set by applying the power set operation $\kappa$ many times, has many nice features. In particular, it is transitive model of $\text{ZFC}$. The models $V_{\kappa }$ for $\kappa$ inaccessible are precisely the uncountable Grothendieck universes used in category theory.

Although the inaccessible cardinals are often viewed as the entryway to the large cardinal hierarchy, there is a useful large cardinal concept weaker than inaccessibility. Namely, a cardinal $\kappa$ is worldly, if $V_{\kappa }$ is a model of $\text{ZFC}$. Every inaccessible cardinal is worldly, and in fact a limit of worldly cardinals, because if $\kappa$ is inaccessible, then there is an elementary chain of cardinals $\lambda <\kappa$ with $V_{\lambda }\prec V_{\kappa }$, and all such $\lambda$ are worldly. The regular worldly cardinals are precisely the inaccessible cardinals, but the least worldly cardinal is always singular of cofinality $\omega$.

The worldly cardinals can be seen as a kind of poor-man’s inaccessible cardinal, in that worldliness often suffices in place of inaccessibility in many arguments, and this sometimes allows one to weaken a large cardinal hypothesis. But meanwhile, they do have some significant strengths. For example, if $\kappa$ is worldly, then $V_{\kappa }$ satisfies the principle that every set is an element of a transitive model of $\text{ZFC}$.

It is easy to see that inaccessibility is downward absolute, in the sense that if $\kappa$ is inaccessible in the full set-theoretic universe $V$ and $W\subseteq V$ is a transitive inner model of $\text{ZFC}$, then $\kappa$ is also inaccessible in $W$. The reason is that $\kappa$ cannot be singular in $W$, since any short cofinal sequence in $W$ would still exist in $V$; and it cannot fail to be a strong limit there, since if some $\delta <\kappa$ had $\kappa$-many distinct subsets in $W$, then this injection would still exist in $V$. So inaccessibility is downward absolute.

The various degrees of hyper-inaccessibility are also downwards absolute to inner models, so that if $\kappa$ is an inaccessible limit of inaccessible limits of inaccessible cardinals, for example, then this is also true in any inner model. This downward absoluteness extends all the way through the hyperinaccessibility hierarchy and up to the Mahlo cardinals and beyond. A cardinal $\kappa$ is Mahlo, if it is a strong limit and the regular cardinals below $\kappa$ form a stationary set. We have observed that being regular is downward absolute, and it is easy to see that every stationary set $S$ is stationary in every inner model, since otherwise there would be a club set $C$ disjoint from $S$ in the inner model, and this club would still be a club in $V$. Similarly, the various levels of hyper-Mahloness are also downward absolute.

So these smallish large cardinals are generally downward absolute. How about the worldly cardinals? Well, we can prove first off that worldliness is downward absolute to the constructible universe $L$.

Observation. If $\kappa$ is worldly, then it is worldly in $L$.

Proof. If $\kappa$ is worldly, then $V_{\kappa }\models \text{ZFC}$. This implies that $\kappa$ is a beth-fixed point. The $L$ of $V_{\kappa }$, which is a model of $\text{ZFC}$, is precisely $L_{\kappa }$, which is also the $V_{\kappa }$ of $L$, since $\kappa$ must also be a beth-fixed point in $L$. So $\kappa$ is worldly in $L$. QED

But meanwhile, in the general case, worldliness is not downward absolute.

Theorem. Worldliness is not necessarily downward absolute to all inner models. It is relatively consistent with $\text{ZFC}$ that there is a worldly cardinal $\kappa$ and an inner model $W\subseteq V$, such that $\kappa$ is not worldly in $W$.

Proof. Suppose that $\kappa$ is a singular worldly cardinal in $V$. And by forcing if necessary, let us assume the GCH holds in $V$. Let $V[G]$ be the forcing extension where we perform the Easton product forcing $\mathbb{P}$, so as to force a violation of the GCH at every regular cardinal $\gamma$. So the stage $\gamma$ forcing is ${\mathbb{Q}}_{\gamma }=\text{Add}(\gamma ,{\gamma }^{++})$.

First, I shall prove that $\kappa$ is worldly in the forcing extension $V[G]$. Since every set of rank less than $\kappa$ is added by some stage less than $\kappa$, it follows that $V_{\kappa }^{V[G]}$ is precisely $\bigcup _{\gamma <\kappa }{V}_{\kappa }[G_{\gamma }]$. Most of the $\text{ZFC}$ axioms hold easily in $V_{\kappa }^{V[G]}$; the only difficult case is the collection axiom. And for this, by considering the ranks of witnesses, it suffices to show for every $\gamma <\kappa$ that every function $f:\gamma \to \kappa$ that is definable from parameters in $V_{\kappa }^{V[G]}$ is bounded. Suppose we have such a function, defined by $f(\alpha )=\beta$ just in case $\phi (\alpha ,\beta ,p)$ holds in $V_{\kappa }^{V[G]}$. Let $\delta <\kappa$ be larger than the rank of $p$. Now consider $V_{\kappa }[G_{\delta }]$, which is a set-forcing extension of $V_{\kappa }$ and therefore a model of $\text{ZFC}$. The fail forcing, from stage $\delta$ up to $\kappa$, is homogeneous in this model. And therefore we know that $f(\alpha )=\beta$ just in case $1$ forces $\phi (\check{\alpha },\check{\beta },\check{p})$, since these arguments are all in the ground model $V_{\kappa }[G_{\delta }]$. So the function is already definable in $V_{\kappa }[G_{\delta }]$. Because this is a model of $\text{ZFC}$, the function $f$ is bounded below $\kappa$. So we get the collection axiom in $V_{\kappa }^{V[G]}$ and hence all of $\text{ZFC}$ there, and so $\kappa$ is worldly in $V[G]$.

For any $A\subseteq \kappa$, let ${\mathbb{P}}_A$ be the restriction of the Easton product forcing to include only the stages in $A$, and let $G_A$ be the corresponding generic filter. The full forcing $\mathbb{P}$ factors as ${\mathbb{P}}_A\times {\mathbb{P}}_{\kappa \setminus A}$, and so $V[G_A]\subseteq V[G]$ is a transitive inner model of $\text{ZFC}$.

But if we pick $A\subseteq \kappa$ to be a short cofinal set in $\kappa$, which is possible because $\kappa$ is singular, then $\kappa$ will not be worldly in the inner model $V[G_A]$, since in $V_{\kappa }[G_A]$ we will be able to identify that sequence as the places where the GCH fails. So $\kappa$ is not worldly in $V[G_A]$.

In summary, $\kappa$ was worldly in $V[G]$, but not in the transitive inner model $W=V[G_A]$, and so worldliness is not downward absolute. QED