Forcing (mathematics)

In the mathematical discipline of set theory, forcing is a technique discovered by Paul Cohen for proving consistency and independence results. It was first used, in 1963, to prove the independence of the axiom of choice and the continuum hypothesis from Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory. Forcing was considerably reworked and simplified in the following years, and has since served as a powerful technique both in set theory and in areas of mathematical logic such as recursion theory.