Hamel bases without (too much) axiomatic set theory

In general, you can't even posit the existence of a Hamel basis without the axiom of choice; and even with the axiom of choice, you can't get your hands on them. If you were to say "pick a basis of $\mathbb{R}$ over $\mathbb{Q}$" then you'd already have invoked the axiom of choice; and then you wouldn't be able to write down what a general vector in the basis looks like. This is characteristic of any construction in mathematics that depends on the axiom of choice, since it's the only axiom which says "this thing exists" without also saying what it looks like.

The sense in which the existence of Hamel bases is equivalent to the axiom of choice is as follows: if every vector space has a (Hamel) basis, then the axiom of choice holds; and if the axiom of choice holds, then every vector space has a basis. This equivalence means that, if the axiom of choice fails, then there is a vector space without a basis; likewise, if there exists a vector space without a basis, then the axiom of choice fails. But the question of whether the axiom of choice holds or fails (and hence of whether Hamel bases exist or don't exist) is unprovable, in a very concrete sense... the response of most mathematicians to this fact is "we'll just admit the axiom of choice".

It's not true that the existence of a Hamel basis of $\mathbb{R}$ over $\mathbb{Q}$ implies the full axiom of choice. However, it does imply a weaker form of the axiom of choice which is [still] unprovable.

Beyond this, I don't know what to say: it's tough to answer an axiomatic set theoretic question without talking about axiomatic set theory.


Hamel basis implies discontinuous real-valued solutions to the functional equation $f(x+y)=f(x)+f(y)$ and such a function is known to be non-measurable. Solovay proved that ZF + countable Dependent Choice is consistent with "every set of reals is Lebesgue measurable" so that

a Hamel basis cannot be proved to exist in ZF + DC. Informally, it cannot be done in classical analysis without uncountable, set-theoretic forms of choice


It is shown here that the existence of a Hamel basis for every vector space implies the Axiom of Choice in ZF.