We give limits defined in terms of abstract pointclasses of the amount of determinacy available in certain canonical inner models involving strong cardinals. We show for example: Theorem A. $\mathrm{D}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{t}\text{\hspace{0.17em}}({\mathrm{\Pi }}_{1}^{1}-\mathrm{I}\mathrm{N}\mathrm{D})$ ⇒ there exists an inner model with a strong cardinal. Theorem B. Det(AQI) ⇒ there exist type-1 mice and hence inner models with proper classes of strong cardinals. where ${\mathrm{\Pi }}_{1}^{1}-\mathrm{I}\mathrm{N}\mathrm{D}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}$ (AQI) is the pointclass of boldface ${\mathrm{\Pi }}_{1}^{1}$ -inductive (respectively arithmetically quasi-inductive) sets of reals.

We give upper and lower bounds for the strength of ordinal definable determinacy in a small admissible set. The upper bound is roughly a premouse with a measurable cardinal $\kappa$ of Mitchell order $\kappa^{++}$ and $\omega$ successors. The lower bound are models of ZFC with sequences of measurable cardinals, extending the work of Lewis, below a regular limit of measurable cardinals.

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. (shrink)

Let o(κ) denote the Mitchell order of κ. We show how to reduce long games which run to the first ordinal admissible in the play, to iteration games on models with a cardinal κ so that (1) κ is a limit of Woodin cardinals: and (2) o(κ) = κ⁺⁺. We use the reduction to derive several optimal determinacy results on games which run to the first admissible in the play.