The stable core, an inner model of the form $\langle L[S],\in , S\rangle $ for a simply definable predicate S, was introduced by the first author in [8], where he showed that V is a class forcing extension of its stable core. We study the structural properties of the stable core and its interactions with large cardinals. We show that the $\operatorname {GCH} $ can fail at all regular cardinals in the stable core, that the stable core can have a discrete proper class of measurable cardinals, but that measurable cardinals need not be downward absolute to the stable core. Moreover, we show that, if large cardinals exist in V, then the stable core has inner models with a proper class of measurable limits of measurables, with a proper class of measurable limits of measurable limits of measurables, and so forth. We show this by providing a characterization of natural inner models $L[C_1, \dots , C_n]$ for specially nested class clubs $C_1, \dots , C_n$, like those arising in the stable core, generalizing recent results of Welch [29].

We put in print a classical result that states that for most purposes, there is no harm in assuming the existence of saturated models in model theory. The presentation is aimed for model theorists with only basic knowledge of axiomatic set theory.

We show that assuming modest large cardinals, there is a definable class of ordinals, closed and unbounded beneath every uncountable cardinal, so that for any closed and unbounded subclasses $P, Q, {\langle L[P],\in ,P \rangle }$ and ${\langle L[Q],\in ,Q \rangle }$ possess the same reals, satisfy the Generalised Continuum Hypothesis, and moreover are elementarily equivalent. Examples of such P are Card, the class of uncountable cardinals, I the uniform indiscernibles, or for any n the class $C^{n}{=_{{\operatorname {df}}}}\{ \lambda \, | \, V_{\lambda } \prec _{{\Sigma }_{n}}V\}$ ; moreover the theory of such models is invariant under ZFC-preserving extensions. They also all have a rich structure satisfying many of the usual combinatorial principles and a definable wellorder of the reals. The inner model constructed using definability in the language augmented by the Härtig quantifier is thus also characterized.

We define a weak iterability notion that is sufficient for a number of arguments concerning $\Sigma _{1}$ -definability at uncountable regular cardinals. In particular we give its exact consistency strength first in terms of the second uniform indiscernible for bounded subsets of $\kappa $ : $u_2(\kappa )$ , and secondly to give the consistency strength of a property of Lücke’s.

TheoremThe following are equiconsistent:

1. (i) There exists $\kappa $ which is stably measurable;

2. (ii) for some cardinal $\kappa $ , $u_2(\kappa )=\sigma (\kappa )$ ;

3. (iii) The $\boldsymbol {\Sigma }_{1}$ -club property holds at a cardinal $\kappa $ .

Here $\sigma (\kappa )$ is the height of the smallest $M \prec _{\Sigma _{1}} H ( \kappa ^{+} )$ containing $\kappa +1$ and all of $H ( \kappa )$ . Let $\Phi (\kappa )$ be the assertion:

TheoremAssume $\kappa $ is stably measurable. Then $\Phi (\kappa )$ .

And a form of converse:

TheoremSuppose there is no sharp for an inner model with a strong cardinal. Then in the core model K we have: $\mbox {``}\exists \kappa \Phi (\kappa ) \mbox {''}$ is (set)-generically absolute ${\,\longleftrightarrow \,}$ There are arbitrarily large stably measurable cardinals.

When $u_2(\kappa ) < \sigma (\kappa )$ we give some results on inner model reflection.

Using techniques developed by Hamkins, Reitz and the second author, we determine the modal logic of inner models.

Assume ZF + AD + V = L(ℝ) and let κ < Θ be an uncountable cardinal. We show that κ is Jónsson, and that if cof (κ) = ω then κ is Rowbottom. We also establish some other partition properties.

We prove some results related to the problem of blowing up the power set of the least measurable cardinal. Our forcing results improve those of [1] by using the optimal hypothesis.