DOCSLIB.ORG

A Zfc Dowker Space in ℵω+1: an Application of Pcf Theory

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Zfc Dowker Space in ℵω+1: an Application of Pcf Theory PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY Volume 126, Number 8, August 1998, Pages 2459{2465 S 0002-9939(98)04884-9 A ZFC DOWKER SPACE IN : AN APPLICATION ℵω+1 OF PCF THEORY TO TOPOLOGY MENACHEM KOJMAN AND SAHARON SHELAH (Communicated by Franklin D. Tall) Abstract. The existence of a Dowker space of cardinality !+1 and weight @ !+1 is proved in ZFC using pcf theory. @ 1. Introduction A Dowker space is a normal Hausdorff topological space whose product with the unit interval is not normal. The problem of existence of such spaces was raised by C. H. Dowker in 1951. C. H. Dowker characterized Dowker spaces as normal Hausdorff and not countably paracompact [4]. Exactly two Dowker spaces were constructed in ZFC prior to the construction of the space below. The existence of a Dowker space in ZFC was first proved by M. E. Rudin in 1971 [6], and her space was the only known Dowker space in ZFC for over two decades. Rudin's space is a subspace of n 1( n + 1) and has cardinality ≥ ℵ 0 . The problem of finding a Dowker space of smaller cardinality in ZFC was ω@ Q ℵreferred to as the \small Dowker space problem". Z. T. Balogh constructed [1] a Dowker space in ZFC whose cardinality is 2@0 . Another, screenable, Dowker space of size 2@0 was constructed by Balogh recently [2]. While both Rudin's and Balogh's spaces are constructed in ZFC, their respective cardinalities are not decided in ZFC, as is well known by the independence results 0 0 of P. Cohen: both 2@ and ω@ have no bound in ZFC (and may be equal to each other). ℵ The problem of which is the first α in which ZFC proves the existence of a Dowker space remains thus unansweredℵ by Rudin's and Balogh's results. In this paper we prove that there is a Dowker space of cardinality ω+1.A non-exponential bound is thus provided for the cardinality of the smallestℵ ZFC Dowker space. We do this by exhibiting a Dowker subspace of Rudin's space of that cardinality. Our construction avoids the exponent which appears in the cardinality 0 of Rudin's space by working with only a fraction of ω@ . It remains open whether is the first cardinal at which there is a ZFC Dowkerℵ space. ℵω+1 Received by the editors June 15, 1996. 1991 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary 54B99, 54G99; Secondary 04A20, 04A30. Key words and phrases. ZFC, Dowker space, cardinality, pcf theory. The second author's research was supported by \The Israel Science Foundation" administered by The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Publication 609. c 1998 American Mathematical Society 2459 License or copyright restrictions may apply to redistribution; see https://www.ams.org/journal-terms-of-use 2460 MENACHEM KOJMAN AND SAHARON SHELAH We shall describe shortly the cardinal arithmetic developments which enable this result. The next three paragraphs are not necessary for understanding the proofs in this paper. In the last decade there has been a considerable advance in the understanding of the infinite exponents of singular cardinals, in particular the exponent @0 .This ℵω exponent is the product of two factors: 2@0 cf [ ]@0 , . The second factor, the × h ℵω ⊆i cofinality of the partial ordering of inclusion over all countable subsets of ω,isthe least number of countable subsets of needed to cover every countableℵ subset of ℵω ; the first factor is the number of subsets of a single countable set. Since @0 is ℵω ℵω the number of countable subsets of , the equality =2@0 cf [ ]@0 is clear. ℵω ℵω × h ℵω i While for 2@0 it is consistent with ZFC to equal any cardinal of uncountable cofinality, the second author's work on Cardinal Arithmetic provides a ZFC bound 0 of ω4 on the factor cf [ ω]@ , . ℵ h ℵ ⊆i 0 This is done by approximating cf [ ω]@ , by an interval of regular cardinals, h ℵ ⊆i 0 whose first element is ω+1 and whose last element is cf [ ω]@ , ,andsothat every regular cardinal λℵ in this interval is the true cofinalityh ℵ of a reduced⊆i product Bλ/J<λ of a set Bλ n :n<ω modulo an ideal J<λ over ω. The theory of reduced products of small⊆{ℵ sets of regular} cardinals, known now as pcf theory1,is Q used to put a bound of ω4 on the length of this interval. 0 Back to topology now, it turns out that the pcf approximations to ω@ are concrete enough to \commute" with Rudin's construction of a Dowker space.ℵ Rudin defines a topology on a subspace of the functions space n>1( n + 1). What is ℵ 0 gotten by restricting Rudin's definition to the first approximation of ω@ is a closed R Q ℵ and cofinal Dowker subspace X of the Rudin space X of cardinality ω+1.The fact that X is Dowker follows, actually, from its closure and cofinality inℵ XR. Hardly any background is needed to state the pcf theorem we are using here. However, an interested reader can find presentations of pcf theory in either [3], the second author's [8] or the first author's [5]. The pcf theorem used here is covered in detail in each of those three sources. 2. Notation and pcf In this section we present a few simple definitions needed to state the pcf theorem used in proving the existence of an ω+1-Dowker space. Suppose B ω is a subset of theℵ natural numbers. ⊆ Definition 1. 1. n B n = f :domf=B f(n)< n for n B . 2 ℵ { ∧ ℵ ∈ } 2. n B( n +1)= f :domf=B f(n) n for n B . 2 ℵ Q{ ∧ ≤ℵ ∈ } 3. For f,g n B( n +1)let: Q(a) f<g∈ iff 2n ℵB [f(n) <g(n)], (b) f g Qiff ∀n ∈ B [f(n) g(n)], ≤ ∀ ∈ ≤ (c) f ∗ g iff n : f(n) >g(n) is finite, ≤ { } (d) f<∗giff n : f(n) g(n) is finite, { ≥ } (e) f =∗ g iff n : f(n) = g(n) is finite. { 6 } 4. A sequence fα : α<λ of functions in n B n is increasing in < ( ,<∗, ∗) h i 2 ℵ ≤ ≤ iff α<β<λ fα <fβ (fα fβ,fα <∗ fβ,fα ∗ fβ). ⇒ ≤ Q ≤ 5. g n B( n +1)isanupper bound of fα : α<δ n B n if and only ∈ 2 ℵ { }⊆ 2 ℵ if fα ∗ g for all α<δ. Q≤ Q 1pcf means possible cofinalities. License or copyright restrictions may apply to redistribution; see https://www.ams.org/journal-terms-of-use A ZFC DOWKER SPACE IN 2461 @!+1 6. g n B( n +1)isaleast upper bound of fα : α<δ n B n if and ∈ 2 ℵ { }⊆ 2 ℵ only if g is an upper bound of fα : α<δ n B n,andifg0 is an upper Q { }⊆ 2 ℵ Q bound of fα : α<δ ,theng ∗g. { } ≤ Q Theorem 1 (Shelah). There is a set B = B ω and a sequence f = fα : @!+1 ⊆ h α< ω+1 of functions in n B n such that: ℵ i 2 ℵ f is increasing in <∗, • Q f is cofinal: for every f n B n there is an α< ω+1 so that f<∗fα. • ∈ 2 ℵ ℵ A sequence as in the theoremQ above will be referred to as an \ ω+1-scale". By Theorem 1 we can find B ω and an -scale g = g ℵ : α< in ⊆ ℵω+1 h α ℵω+1i n B n.ThesetBis clearly infinite. Restricting every gα g toafixedco-finite set2 ofℵ coordinates does not matter, so we assume without loss∈ of generality that 0Q, 1 / B. For notational simplicity we pretend that B = ω 0,1 ;ifthisisnot ∈ −{ } the case, we need to replace n in what follows by the n-th element of B.Wesum up our assumptions in the following:ℵ Claim 2. We can assume without loss of generality that there is an ω+1-scale g = g : α< in . ℵ h α ℵω+1i n>1 ℵn Claim 3. There is an ωQ+1-scale f = fα : α< ω+1 in n so that for every ℵ h ℵ i n>1 ℵ δ< ,ifcfδ> and a least upper bound of f δ exists, then f is a least upper ℵω+1 ℵ0 Q δ bound of fδ. Proof. Fix an -scale g = g : α< in as guaranteed by Claim ℵω+1 h α ℵω+1i n>1 ℵn 2. Define fα by induction on α< ω+1 as follows: If α is a successor or limit of ℵ Q countable cofinality, let f be g for the first β (α, ) for which g >∗ f for α β ∈ ℵω+1 β γ all γ<α.Ifcfα> ,thenletg be a least upper bound to f δ := f : β<α, ℵ0 α h β i if such least upper bound exists; else, define fα as in the previous cases. The sequence f = fα : α< ω+1 is increasing cofinal in n>1 n and by its definition satisfies theh required condition.ℵ i ℵ Q Claim 4. Suppose 0 <m k<ω.Let α(ζ):ζ< m be strictly increasing with sup α(ζ):ζ< =δ<≤ .If gh :ζ< ℵisi a sequence of functions in { ℵm} ℵω+1 hζ ℵmi which is increasing in <,andg =∗f for every ζ< , then: n>k ℵn ζ α(ζ) ℵm g := sup g : ζ< is a least upper bound of f δ, Q • { ζ ℵm}∈ n>k ℵn cfg(n)= m for all n>k, • ℵ Q g=∗ f .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • ANOTHER DOWKER PRODUCT 1. Introduction
    Topology and its Applications 36 (1990) 253-264 253 North-Holland ANOTHER DOWKER PRODUCT Amer BESLAGIe Department of Mathematics, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030, USA Received 4 November 1988 The continuum hypothesis implies that there are (normal) countably paracompact spaces X and Y such that the product X x Y is normal and not countably paracompact. AMS (MOS) Subj. Class.: 54B10, 54D15, 54620, 03E50 product normal countably paracompact Lusin set 1. Introduction A normal space which is not countably paracompact is called a Dowker space, after an old result by Dowker that a normal space X is countably paracompact iff the product X x I is normal, where I is the closed unit interval [5]. To appreciate difficulties in making a space normal but not countably paracom- pact, recall that normality is equivalent to the statement: For every jinite closed family {F,, : n < k} (k < o) with n,,<k F., = 0 there is an open family (0, : n < k} with nnck 0, = 0 and F,, c 0, for each n. And a space is normal and countably paracompact iff for every countable closed family {F, : n < k} (k s w) with nnck F,, = 0 there is an open family { 0, : n < k} with n,,<k 0, = 0 and F, = 0, for each n. There is essentially only one known Dowker space in ZFC, constructed by Rudin [lo]; all its cardinal functions are large. Watson [15] uses a supercompact cardinal to construct another (large) example. If we go beyond ZFC, there are several “small” Dowker spaces: de Caux [3] uses 0, and Rudin [9, 111 a Suslin line to get them.
    [Show full text]
  • Singular Cardinals: from Hausdorff's Gaps to Shelah's Pcf Theory
    SINGULAR CARDINALS: FROM HAUSDORFF’S GAPS TO SHELAH’S PCF THEORY Menachem Kojman 1 PREFACE The mathematical subject of singular cardinals is young and many of the math- ematicians who made important contributions to it are still active. This makes writing a history of singular cardinals a somewhat riskier mission than writing the history of, say, Babylonian arithmetic. Yet exactly the discussions with some of the people who created the 20th century history of singular cardinals made the writing of this article fascinating. I am indebted to Moti Gitik, Ronald Jensen, Istv´an Juh´asz, Menachem Magidor and Saharon Shelah for the time and effort they spent on helping me understand the development of the subject and for many illuminations they provided. A lot of what I thought about the history of singular cardinals had to change as a result of these discussions. Special thanks are due to Istv´an Juh´asz, for his patient reading for me from the Russian text of Alexandrov and Urysohn’s Memoirs, to Salma Kuhlmann, who directed me to the definition of singular cardinals in Hausdorff’s writing, and to Stefan Geschke, who helped me with the German texts I needed to read and sometimes translate. I am also indebted to the Hausdorff project in Bonn, for publishing a beautiful annotated volume of Hausdorff’s monumental Grundz¨uge der Mengenlehre and for Springer Verlag, for rushing to me a free copy of this book; many important details about the early history of the subject were drawn from this volume. The wonderful library and archive of the Institute Mittag-Leffler are a treasure for anyone interested in mathematics at the turn of the 20th century; a particularly pleasant duty for me is to thank the institute for hosting me during my visit in September of 2009, which allowed me to verify various details in the early research literature, as well as providing me the company of many set theorists and model theorists who are interested in the subject.
    [Show full text]
  • TOPOLOGY PROCEEDINGS Volume 27, No
    TOPOLOGY PROCEEDINGS Volume 27, No. 1, 2003 Pages i-xxiii ZOLI DENNIS BURKE AND GARY GRUENHAGE 1. Introduction Zoltan “Zoli” Tibor Balogh died at his home in Oxford, Ohio, in the early morning hours of Wednesday, June 19, 2002. He was 48 years old. In this article, we give a brief sketch of his life and then discuss his mathematical contributions. He will be sorely missed, both as a leader in the field of set-theoretic topology and as our friend. i ii D. BURKE AND G. GRUENHAGE 2. Biographical snapshot Zoli was born on December 7, 1953, in Debrecen, Hungary, the son of Tibor Balogh and Ilona Kelemen. His father, a mathemati- cian working in the area of “matrix-valued stochastic processes,” was a professor at Kossuth University in Debrecen. His mother had a graduate degree in chemistry and also was a professor at Kossuth University. A younger sister Agnes later acquired an MD in the field of internal medicine and is currently a practicing physician in Debrecen. Zoli grew up in Debrecen, attending the local elementary schools and high-school. In 1972, Zoli began his university education by entering Lajos Kossuth University as a mathematics student in the Faculty of Sci- ences and received the B.Sc+ degree in 1977, completing a five year program. This degree would be comparable to a very strong Master of Science degree in the US, with a research specialization in topology. Indeed, his research ability began to show up early– Zoli presented a paper, Relative compactness and recent common generalizations of metric and locally compact spaces, at the Fourth Prague Topological Symposium in 1976, in which he introduces the concept of “relative compactness.” (The paper, later published in the conference proceedings, was the precursor of the paper by the same name published in Fundamenta Mathematicae in 1978.) In 1977, he received the Renyi Kato Memorial Prize, awarded by the Bolyai Janos Mathematical Society to outstanding young researchers in mathematics.
    [Show full text]
  • Of a Lindelöf Space and the Irrationals
    PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN MATHEMATICALSOCIETY Volume 110, Number 2, October 1990 THE INFLUENCE OF A SMALL CARDINAL ON THE PRODUCT OF A LINDELÖF SPACE AND THE IRRATIONALS L. BRIAN LAWRENCE (Communicated by R. Daniel Mauldin) Abstract. It is unknown whether there is in ZFC a Lindelöf space whose prod- uct with the irrationals is nonnormal. We give some necessary conditions based on the minimum cardinality of a <* unbounded family in ma>. 0. Introduction History. In 1963 [9], E. A. Michael gave the first ZFC example of a normal space and a metric space with a nonnormal product, where the term "space" is an abbreviation for "Hausdorff regular topological space." (In 1955 [12], M. E. Rudin used a Souslin line to construct a Dowker space—a normal space whose product with the closed unit interval is nonnormal; the existence of a Souslin line was shown to be independent of ZFC in the late 1960s. Rudin constructed a real Dowker space in 1971 [13].) Let P, Q, and R denote respectively the irrationals, rationals, and reals with their usual topologies; and let M denote the Michael line which is the refinement of R obtained by isolating each irrational point. In Michael's example, M is the normal space and P is the metric space; M is moreover hereditarily paracompact. A topological space X is concentrated on a subset A ç X if for every open set U D A, X \U is countable. The Continuum Hypothesis implies the existence of an uncountable subset X ç IR with X concentrated on Q (A.S.
    [Show full text]
  • MARY ELLEN's CONJECTURES Introduction For
    MARY ELLEN'S CONJECTURES GARY GRUENHAGE AND PETER NYIKOS Introduction For a special issue like this, it would seem to be very appropriate for us, the editors, to write an article summarizing Mary Ellen's contributions to the field, and giving some account of her mathematical career. But there is an excellent article by Frank Tall [65] in the book The Work of Mary Ellen Rudin that does exactly this, covering her work and giving a sketch of her mathematical life up until shortly after her retirement in 1991. The article also includes a list of her students and their theses titles, her postdocs, and her publications. While she published a couple of papers on other topics after that time, she spent most of her post-retirement working on Nikiel's conjecture, that the images of compact ordered spaces are exactly the compact monotonically normal spaces. She eventually solved it (positively) in 2001 [63]; it took one of the deepest and most difficult arguments of her career to do so. Instead of copying Frank's article, we would like to do something a bit different. In the book Open Problems in Topology, published in 1990, Mary Ellen has an article [62] in which she states 17 \conjectures".1 This is the way she chose to phrase some unsolved problems, most of them due originally to others, that she was particularly interested in. We quote from her article to give a sense of her reasons for choosing these particular problems: \The problems I list here have mostly been listed in Rudin [1988]; I have worked on all of them long enough to have some real respect for them; they have all stood the test of time and labor by various people; and I feel any solution to any of them would have applications at least to other problems exhibiting similar pathologies." Here we go over Mary Ellen's list of conjectures, giving a brief summary of her contributions and where each conjecture stands today.
    [Show full text]
  • The Mathematics of Zoltán T. Balogh
    Publ. Math. Debrecen 63/1-2 (2003), 5–17 The mathematics of Zolt´anT. Balogh By DENNIS BURKE (Oxford) and GARY GRUENHAGE (Auburn) 1. Introduction Zoli’s research was in set-theoretic topology. (The authors of this article were friends as well as professional colleagues of Zolt´anBalogh. So we would like to call him Zoli, as we did throughout his life.) Deep infinitary combinatorics lie at the heart of many of the problems in this field, and thus their solutions frequently make use of the tools of modern set theory, e.g., special axioms such as the continuum hypothesis (CH) or Martin’s Axiom (MA), or building models of set theory by Cohen’s method of forcing. Statements shown to be true using special axioms or models are thereby proven consistent with the usual axioms of ZFC (the Zermelo–Fraenkel axioms plus the axiom of choice). Sometimes the negation of a consistent statement is also shown to be consistent, and hence the statement is independent of ZFC. The statement of Souslin’s problem, for example, is a well-known independent statement. A problem in set- theoretic topology is not considered “solved” until either its statement is proven independent, or a positive or negative answer in ZFC is found. Some of Zoli’s very best results were finding ZFC solutions to problems for which previously only a consistent answer was known. Zoli’s research spans 25 years or so, and includes many significant con- tributions in diverse areas within set-theoretic topology. To help organize Mathematics Subject Classification: 01A70. This discussion of Zolt´anBalogh’s mathematics will also appear, possibly in an expanded form, on the Topology Atlas website and in a future issue of Topology Proceedings.
    [Show full text]
  • [Math.GN] 25 Dec 2003
    Problems from Topology Proceedings Edited by Elliott Pearl arXiv:math/0312456v1 [math.GN] 25 Dec 2003 Topology Atlas, Toronto, 2003 Topology Atlas Toronto, Ontario, Canada http://at.yorku.ca/topology/ [email protected] Cataloguing in Publication Data Problems from topology proceedings / edited by Elliott Pearl. vi, 216 p. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-9730867-1-8 1. Topology—Problems, exercises, etc. I. Pearl, Elliott. II. Title. Dewey 514 20 LC QA611 MSC (2000) 54-06 Copyright c 2003 Topology Atlas. All rights reserved. Users of this publication are permitted to make fair use of the material in teaching, research and reviewing. No part of this publication may be distributed for commercial purposes without the prior permission of the publisher. ISBN 0-9730867-1-8 Produced November 2003. Preliminary versions of this publication were distributed on the Topology Atlas website. This publication is available in several electronic formats on the Topology Atlas website. Produced in Canada Contents Preface ............................................ ............................v Contributed Problems in Topology Proceedings .................................1 Edited by Peter J. Nyikos and Elliott Pearl. Classic Problems ....................................... ......................69 By Peter J. Nyikos. New Classic Problems .................................... ....................91 Contributions by Z.T. Balogh, S.W. Davis, A. Dow, G. Gruenhage, P.J. Nyikos, M.E. Rudin, F.D. Tall, S. Watson. Problems from M.E. Rudin’s Lecture notes in set-theoretic topology ..........103 By Elliott Pearl. Problems from A.V. Arhangel′ski˘ı’s Structure and classification of topological spaces and cardinal invariants ................................................... ...123 By A.V. Arhangel′ski˘ıand Elliott Pearl. A note on P. Nyikos’s A survey of two problems in topology ..................135 By Elliott Pearl.
    [Show full text]
  • “The Lindelöf Property”
    “The Lindel¨ofProperty” d-07: Monday 25-02-2002 at 15:23:40 (cet) A topological space is said to be Lindel¨of, or have the Lindel¨ofproperty, if every open cover of X has a countable subcover. The Lindel¨ofproperty was introduced by Alexandroff and Urysohn in 1929, the term ‘Lindel¨of’ referring back to Lindel¨of’s result that any family of open subsets of Euclidean space has a countable sub-family with the same union. Clearly, a space is compact if and only if it is both Lindel¨ofand countably compact, though weaker properties, for example pseudocompactness, imply compactness in the presence of the Lindel¨of property. The real line is a Lindel¨ofspace that is not compact and the space of all countable ordinals ω1 with the order topology is a countably compact space that is not Lindel¨of. It should be noted that some authors require the Hausdorff or regular (which we take to include T1) separation axioms as part of the definition of many open covering properties (c.f. [E]). For any unreferenced results in this article we refer the reader to [E]. There are a number of equivalent formulations of the Lindel¨ofproperty: (a) the space X is Lindel¨of;(b) X is [ω1, ∞]-compact (see the article by Vaughan in this volume); (c) every open cover has a countable refinement; (d) every family of closed subspaces with the countable intersection property1 has non-empty intersection; (e) (for regular spaces) every open cover of X has a countable subcover V such that {V : V ∈ V} covers X (where A denotes the closure of A in X).
    [Show full text]
  • Small Dowker Spaces
    Open Problems in Topology II – Edited by E. Pearl © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved Small Dowker spaces Paul J. Szeptycki A normal space whose product with the closed unit interval I is not normal is called a Dowker space. The spaces are named for Hugh Dowker who proved a number of characterizations of the class of spaces for which X × I is normal. One of his motivations for studying this class of spaces was the study of the so- called insertion property: X has the insertion property whenever f, g : X → R such that f < g, g lower semi-continuous and f upper semi-continuous, there is a continuous h: X → R such that f < h < g. Dowker proved the following characterization ([17]). Theorem. For a normal space, the following are equivalent (1) X is countably paracompact. (2) X × Y is normal for all infinite, compact metric spaces Y . (3) X × Y is normal for some infinite compact metric space Y . (4) X has the insertion property. The homotopy extension property also fueled interest in normality of products X×I (later Starbird [46] and Morita [34] showed that normality of X was sufficient to for the homotopy extension property). Dowker was the first to raise the question when he asked (in a footnote to [17]): “It would be interesting to have an example of a normal Hausdorff space that is not countably paracompact.” Indeed. The connection between normality and count- able paracompactness is quite subtle and constructing a normal not countably paracompact space has turned out to be a difficult and deep problem.
    [Show full text]
  • Open Problems in Topology
    OPEN PROBLEMS IN TOPOLOGY Edited by Jan van Mill Free University Amsterdam, The Netherlands George M. Reed St. Edmund Hall Oxford University Oxford, United Kingdom 1990 NORTH-HOLLAND AMSTERDAM • NEW YORK • OXFORD • TOKYO Introduction This volume grew from a discussion by the editors on the difficulty of finding good thesis problems for graduate students in topology. Although at any given time we each had our own favorite problems, we acknowledged the need to offer students a wider selection from which to choose a topic peculiar to their interests. One of us remarked, “Wouldn’t it be nice to have a book of current unsolved problems always available to pull down from the shelf?” The other replied, “Why don’t we simply produce such a book?” Two years later and not so simply, here is the resulting volume. The intent is to provide not only a source book for thesis-level problems but also a chal- lenge to the best researchers in the field. Of course, the presented problems still reflect to some extent our own prejudices. However, as editors we have tried to represent as broad a perspective of topological research as possible. The topics range over algebraic topology, analytic set theory, continua theory, digital topology, dimension theory, domain theory, function spaces, gener- alized metric spaces, geometric topology, homogeneity, infinite-dimensional topology, knot theory, ordered spaces, set-theoretic topology, topological dy- namics, and topological groups. Application areas include computer science, differential systems, functional analysis, and set theory. The authors are among the world leaders in their respective research areas. A key component in our specification for the volume was to provide current problems.
    [Show full text]
  • Problems in General and Set-Theoretic Topology
    PROBLEMS IN GENERAL AND SET-THEORETIC TOPOLOGY 4/23/04 Below are problems posed at the Problem Session in General/Set-theoretic Topology at the 2004 Spring Topology and Dynamics Conference at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. Included with each problem are some remarks of the poser. Some problems sent to me by email by Justin Moore and Alan Dow are also included. Please note that the poser of a problem at the problem session is not necessarily the one who asked the question originally. Problems by J. van Mill Problem 1. Is there a non-trivial zero-dimensional homogeneous subspace of the real line with the fixed-point property for homeomorphisms? Related to Problem 1 is: Problem 2. Is there a nontrivial compact zero-dimensional first countable homo- geneous space with the fixed-point property for homeomorphisms? These questions are rather old and asked many times. I believe they are in- teresting since zero-dimensionality and the fixed-point property are more or less ‘orthogonal’ properties. Problems by J. T. Moore The solution to the basis problem for linear orders (i.e., PFA implies that there are 5 specific uncountable linear orders such that every uncountable linear order isomorphically contains one) is relevant to problems such as the conjecture (L) (no L spaces), (PFA) every perfect compacta is premetric of degree 2, (PFA) the uncountable regular spaces have a 3 element basis. Perhaps I am being a bit ambitious but I would file this in the ”promising new directions” category. As for problems: Problem 3. Does Martin’s Maximum imply that every compact space either con- tains an uncountable discrete set or continuously maps 2-1 onto a metric space? Problem 4.
    [Show full text]
  • Cardinal Arithmetic: from Silver's Theorem to Shelah's PCF Theory
    Cardinal Arithmetic: From Silver’s Theorem to Shelah’s PCF Theory Master’s Thesis Curial Gallart Rodríguez Advisor: Prof. Joan Bagaria Pigrau Master’s Degree in Pure and Applied Logic July, 2020 Our minds are finite, and yet even in these circumstances of finitude we are surrounded by possibilities that are infinite, and the purpose of life is to grasp as much as we can out of that infinitude. Alfred North Whitehead I II Acknowledgements I am very proud to have been a student of Professor Joan Bagaria. His passion for set theory can only be compared to his extensive knowledge of the field, and this was reflected in his classes. He has been an inspiration for me and for many of my classmates. Thank you for your advice and your guidance. I would also like to thank all the professors of the Master in Pure and Applied Logic of the University of Barcelona, specially Ramon Jansana. Thank you for keeping the master alive, and allowing students like me to learn the beautiful field of logic. Many thanks to all my classmates in the master, those who left and those who stayed. Thank you for sharing the pain, but also the reliefs. Your laughs have made it easy to go through these two years. I am deeply thankful to my always supportive parents. Thank you for encouraging me to be whatever I wanted to be, for coming along with me through this arduous path, which has just started. I will always be in debt with you. I would also like to extend my deepest gratitude to my family, and to those who have behaved as such.
    [Show full text]