Mad Families Constructed from Perfect Almost Disjoint Families

We prove the consistency of together with the existence of a -definable mad family, answering a question posed by Friedman and Zdomskyy in [7, Question 16]. For the proof we construct a mad family in L which is an ℵ1-union of perfect a.d. sets, such that this union remains mad in the iterated Hechler extension. The construction also leads us to isolate a new cardinal invariant, the Borel almost-disjointness number, defined as the least number of Borel a.d. sets whose union is a mad family. Our proof yields the consistency of (and hence, ).

Filters in C*-Algebras

In this paper we analyze states on C*-algebras and their relationship to filter-like structures of projections and positive elements in the unit ball. After developing the basic theory we use this to investigate the Kadison–Singer conjecture, proving its equivalence to an apparently quite weak paving conjecture and the existence of unique maximal centred extensions of projections coming from ultrafilters on the natural numbers. We then prove that Reid's positive answer to this for q-points in fact also holds for rapid p-points, and that maximal centred filters are obtained in this case. We then show that consistently, such maximal centred filters do not exist at all meaning that, for every pure state on the Calkin algebra, there exists a pair of projections on which the state is 1, even though the state is bounded strictly below 1 for projections below this pair. Next, we investigate towers, using cardinal invariant equalities to construct towers on the natural numbers that do and do not remain towers when canonically embedded into the Calkin algebra. Finally, we show that consistently, all towers on the natural numbers remain towers under this embedding.

Cardinal invariants and the collapse of the continuum by Sacks forcing

We study cardinal invariants of systems of meager hereditary families of subsets of ω connected with the collapse of the continuum by Sacks forcing and we obtain a cardinal invariant such that collapses the continuum to and . Applying the Baumgartner-Dordal theorem on preservation of eventually narrow sequences we obtain the consistency of . We define two relations and on the set (ωω)Fin of finite-to-one functions which are Tukey equivalent to the eventual dominance relation of functions such that if -unbounded, well-ordered by , and not -dominating, then there is a nonmeager p-ideal. The existence of such a system follows from Martin's axiom. This is an analogue of the results of [3], [9, 10] for increasing functions.

Maximal irredundance and maximal ideal independence in Boolean algebras

Recall that a subset X of an algebra A is irredundant iff x ∉ 〈X∖{x}〉 for all x ϵ X, where 〈X∖{x}) is the subalgebra generated by X∖{x}. By Zorn's lemma there is always a maximal irredundant set in an algebra. This gives rise to a natural cardinal function Irrmm(A) = min{∣X∣: X is a maximal irredundant subset of A}. The first half of this article is devoted to proving that there is an atomless Boolean algebra A of size 2ω for which Irrmm(A) = ω.A subset X of a BA A is ideal independent iff x ∉ (X∖{x}〉id for all x ϵ X, where 〈X∖{x}〉id is the ideal generated by X∖{x}. Again, by Zorn's lemma there is always a maximal ideal independent subset of any Boolean algebra. We then consider two associated functions. A spectrum functionSspect(A) = {∣X∣: X is a maximal ideal independent subset of A}and the least element of this set, smm(A). We show that many sets of infinite cardinals can appear as Sspect(A). The relationship of Smm to similar “continuum cardinals” is investigated. It is shown that it is relatively consistent that Smm/fin) < 2ω.We use the letter s here because of the relationship of ideal independence with the well-known cardinal invariant spread; see Monk [5]. Namely, sup{∣X∣: X is ideal independent in A} is the same as the spread of the Stone space Ult(A); the spread of a topological space X is the supremum of cardinalities of discrete subspaces.

Ultrafilters on the natural numbers

We study the problem of existence and generic existence of ultrafilters on ω. We prove a conjecture of Jörg Brendle's showing that there is an ultrafilter that is countably closed but is not an ordinal ultrafilter under CH. We also show that Canjar's previous partial characterization of the generic existence of Q-points is the best that can be done. More simply put, there is no normal cardinal invariant equality that fully characterizes the generic existence of Q-points. We then sharpen results on generic existence with the introduction of σ-compact ultrafilters. We show that the generic existence of said ultrafilters is equivalent to . This result, taken along with our result that there exists a Kσ, non-countably closed ultrafilter under CH, expands the size of the class of ultrafilters that were known to fit this description before. From the core of the proof, we get a new result on the cardinal invariants of the continuum, i.e., the cofinality of the sets with σ-compact closure is .

On non-wellfounded iterations of the perfect set forcing

We prove that if I is a partially ordered set in a countable transitive model of ZFC then can be extended by a generic sequence of reals ai, i ∈ I, such that is preserved and every ai is Sacks generic over [〈aj: j < i〉]. The structure of the degrees of -constructibility of reals in the extension is investigated.As applications of the methods involved, we define a cardinal invariant to distinguish product and iterated Sacks extensions, and give a short proof of a theorem (by Budinas) that in ω2-iterated Sacks extension of L the Burgess selection principle for analytic equivalence relations holds.

Unions of rectifiable curves in Euclidean space and the covering number of the meagre ideal

To any metric space it is possible to associate the cardinal invariant corresponding to the least number of rectifiable curves in the space whose union is not meagre. It is shown that this invariant can vary with the metric space considered, even when restricted to the class of convex subspaces of separable Banach spaces. As a corollary it is obtained that it is consistent with set theory that any set of reals of size ℵ1 is meagre yet there are ℵ1 rectifiable curves in ℝ3 whose union is not meagre. The consistency of this statement when the phrase “rectifiable curves” is replaced by “straight lines” remains open.