Canonical reconstruction and forcing absoluteness of standard structures

Abstract

We isolate a simple preservation principle governing when it is absolute, between transitive models of set theory, that a given algebraic or topological-algebraic structure has a standard form $F(X)$ indexed by a set $X$. The principle is: if the index $X$ (or a proxy for it) can be recovered from $F(X)$ by a uniform definable construction, then the class of structures isomorphic to some~$F(X)$ is downward absolute from forcing extensions. Answering a question raised by Noah Schweber, we deduce in particular that no group that fails to be a full symmetric group in the ground model can become one after forcing; the result holds already in ZF. The same mechanism applies to full transformation monoids, powerset Boolean algebras, full relation algebras, full clones, full partition lattices, products $R^X$ of finitely generated centrally indecomposable rings, the commutative $C^*$-algebras $\ell_\infty(X)$ and $c_0(X)$, full endomorphism rings, the operator algebras $\mathcal{B}(H)$ and $\mathcal{K}(H)$, and $\ell_1(X)$ as a real Banach lattice. In the motivating symmetric-group case, the same reconstruction gives more than descent: it yields a uniform $Π^1_1$ definition of fullness over transitive ZF-models. We then exhibit clean torsor obstructions, in the standard symmetric-model situation: finite covers $Y \times n$ already separate ZF-failure from ZFC-descent without any completeness caveat, and the finite-support normed space $c_{00}(I)$ provides the analogous Banach example. Bare-Banach-space isomorphism with $\ell_1(Γ)$ exhibits a genuine ZFC-descent. We conclude with the corresponding, relative, obstructions to $Π^1_1$-definability of standardness over transitive ZF-models.