Trivial automorphisms

Ilijas Farah, Saharon Shelah

Published 2011-12-15, updated 2012-11-15Version 2

We prove that the statement `For all Borel ideals I and J on $\omega$, every isomorphism between Boolean algebras $P(\omega)/I$ and $P(\omega)/J$ has a continuous representation' is relatively consistent with ZFC. In this model every isomorphism between $P(\omega)/I$ and any other quotient $P(\omega)/J$ over a Borel ideal is trivial for a number of Borel ideals I on $\omega$. We can also assure that the dominating number is equal to $\aleph_1$ and that $2^{\aleph_1}>2^{\aleph_0}$. Therefore the Calkin algebra has outer automorphisms while all automorphisms of $P(\omega)/Fin$ are trivial. Proofs rely on delicate analysis of names for reals in a countable support iteration of suslin proper forcings.