The Ramsey property implies no mad families

We show that if all collections of infinite subsets of N have the Ramsey property, then there are no infinite maximal almost disjoint (mad) families. The implication is proved in Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory with only weak choice principles. This gives a positive solution to a long-standing problem that goes back to Mathias [A. R. D. Mathias, Ann. Math. Logic 12, 59–111 (1977)]. The proof exploits an idea which has its natural roots in ergodic theory, topological dynamics, and invariant descriptive set theory: We use that a certain function associated to a purported mad family is invariant under the equivalence relation E0 and thus is constant on a “large” set. Furthermore, we announce a number of additional results about mad families relative to more complicated Borel ideals.

MADNESS IN VECTOR SPACES

We consider maximal almost disjoint families of block subspaces of countable vector spaces, focusing on questions of their size and definability. We prove that the minimum infinite cardinality of such a family cannot be decided in ZFC and that the “spectrum” of cardinalities of mad families of subspaces can be made arbitrarily large, in analogy to results for mad families on ω. We apply the author’s local Ramsey theory for vector spaces [32] to give partial results concerning their definability.

GENERIC EXISTENCE OF MAD FAMILIES

In this note we study generic existence of maximal almost disjoint (MAD) families. Among other results we prove that Cohen-indestructible families exist generically if and only if b = c. We obtain analogous results for other combinatorial properties of MAD families, including Sacks-indestructibility and being +-Ramsey.

MAD SPECTRA

The mad spectrum is the set of all cardinalities of infinite maximal almost disjoint families on ω. We treat the problem to characterize those sets ${\rm {\cal A}} $ which, in some forcing extension of the universe, can be the mad spectrum. We give a complete solution to this problem under the assumption $\vartheta ^{ < \vartheta } = \vartheta $, where $\vartheta = {\rm{min}}\left( {\rm {\cal A}} \right) $.

Splitting Families and Complete Separability

We answer a question from Raghavan and Steprans by showing that Then we use this to construct a completely separable maximal almost disjoint family under a, partially answering a question of Shelah.

On Weakly Tight Families

Using ideas from Shelah's recent proof that a completely separable maximal almost disjoint family exists when 𝔠 < ℵω, we construct a weakly tight family under the hypothesis 𝔰 ≤ 𝔟 < ℵω. The case when 𝔰 < 𝔟 is handled in ZFC and does not require 𝔟 < ℵω, while an additional PCF type hypothesis, which holds when 𝔟 < ℵω is used to treat the case 𝔰 = 𝔟. The notion of a weakly tight family is a natural weakening of the well-studied notion of a Cohen indestructible maximal almost disjoint family. It was introduced by Hrušák and García Ferreira [8], who applied it to the Katétov order on almost disjoint families.