This is one of two articles that came out of my dissertation (also titled The Ground Axiom).
Details
Abstract. A new axiom is proposed, the Ground Axiom, asserting that the universe is not a nontrivial set forcing extension of any inner model. The Ground Axiom is first-order expressible, and any model of ZFC has a class forcing extension which satisfies it. The Ground Axiom is independent of many well-known set-theoretic assertions including the Generalized Continuum Hypothesis, the assertion V=HOD that every set is ordinal definable, and the existence of measurable and supercompact cardinals. The related Bedrock Axiom, asserting that the universe is a set forcing extension of a model satisfying the Ground Axiom, is also first-order expressible, and its negation is consistent.
Reitz, J. (2007). The Ground Axiom. The Journal of Symbolic Logic, 72(4), 1299–1317. Journal, arXiv
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