Menger's basis property is a generalization of $σ$-compactness and admits an elegant combinatorial interpretation. We introduce a general combinatorial method to construct non $σ$-compact sets of reals with Menger's property. Special instances of these constructions give known counterexamples to conjectures of Menger and Hurewicz. We obtain the first explicit solution to the Hurewicz 1927 problem, that was previously solved by Chaber and Pol on a dichotomic basis.
The constructed sets generate nontrivial subfields of the real line with strong combinatorial properties, and most of our results can be stated in a Ramsey-theoretic manner.
Since we believe that this paper is of interest to a diverse mathematical audience, we have made a special effort to make it self-contained and accessible.
We provide simplified solutions of Menger's and Hurewicz's problems and conjectures, concerning generalizations of sigma-compactness. The reader who is new to this field will find a self-contained treatment in Sections 1, 2, and 5. Sections 3 and 4 contain new results, based on the mentioned simplified solutions. The main new result is that there is a set of reals X of cardinality equal to the unbounding number b, and which has the following property: "Given point-cofinite covers U_1,U_2,... of X, there are for each n sets u_n,v_n in U_n, such that each member of X is contained in all but fini…
According to a result of Kocinac and Scheepers, the Hurewicz covering property is equivalent to a somewhat simpler selection property: For each sequence of large open covers of the space one can choose finitely many elements from each cover to obtain a groupable cover of the space. We simplify the characterization further by omitting the need to consider sequences of covers: A set of reals $X$ satisfies the Hurewicz property if, and only if, each large open cover of $X$ contains a groupable subcover. This solves in the affirmative a problem of Scheepers. The proof uses a rigorously justified a…
In this paper we formulate three problems concerning topological properties of sets generating Borel non-sigma-compact groups. In case of the concrete F_σδ-subgroup of the Cantor group this gives an equivalent reformulation of the Scheepers diagram problem.
We show that even for subsets X of the real line which do not contain perfect sets, the Hurewicz property does not imply the property S1(Gamma,Gamma), asserting that for each countable family of open gamma-covers of X, there is a choice function whose image is a gamma-cover of X. This settles a problem of Just, Miller, Scheepers, and Szeptycki. Our main result also answers a question of Bartoszynski and Tsaban, and implies that for C_p(X), the conjunction of Sakai's strong countable fan tightness and the Reznichenko property does not imply Arhangelskii's property alpha_2.
A classical theorem of Hurewicz characterizes spaces with the Hurewicz covering property as those having bounded continuous images in the Baire space. We give a similar characterization for spaces X which have the Hurewicz property hereditarily. We proceed to consider the class of Arhangel'skii alpha_1 spaces, for which every sheaf at a point can be amalgamated in a natural way. Let C_p(X) denote the space of continuous real-valued functions on X with the topology of pointwise convergence. Our main result is that C_p(X) is an alpha_1 space if, and only if, each Borel image of X in the Baire sp…
Never has an issue of the SPM Bulletin contained as much interesting information as this issue does. In addition to the interesting research announcements, this issue contains announcements of solutions for three open problems, one of which being a Problem of the Month in an earlier issue. CONTENTS: The Reznichenko property and the Pytkeev property in hyperspaces; Between Maharam's and von Neumann's problems; Fraisse Limits, Ramsey Theory, and Topological Dynamics of Automorphism Groups; Concerning problems about cardinal invariants on Boolean algebras; Small Locally Compact Linearly Lindelof …
Combinatorial covering properties in an uncountable setting: canonical examples
Bar-Ilan University(巴伊兰大学);Ariel University(阿里埃勒大学);Lodz University of Technology(罗兹理工大学);University of Warsaw(华沙大学);Technische Universität Wien(维也纳工业大学)
We study the preservation of selective covering properties, including classic ones introduced by Menger, Hurewicz, Rothberger, Gerlits and Nagy, and others, under products with some major families of concentrated sets of reals. Our methods include the projection method introduced by the authors in an earlier work, as well as several new methods. Some special consequences of our main results are (definitions provided in the paper): \be \item Every product of a concentrated space with a Hurewicz $\sone(\Ga,\Op)$ space satisfies $\sone(\Ga,\Op)$. On the other hand, assuming \CH{}, for each Sierpi…
We construct Menger subsets of the real line whose product is not Menger in the plane. In contrast to earlier constructions, our approach is purely combinatorial. The set theoretic hypothesis used in our construction is far milder than earlier ones, and holds in all but the most exotic models of real set theory. On the other hand, we establish productive properties for versions of Menger's property parameterized by filters and semifilters. In particular, the Continuum Hypothesis implies that every productively Menger set of real numbers is productively Hurewicz, and each ultrafilter version of…
CONTENTS OF THE ISSUE: Hurewicz-like tests for Borel subsets of the plane; Ordered Spaces, Metric Preimages, and Function Algebras; On the independence of a generalized statement of Egoroff's theorem from ZFC, after T. Weiss; Forty annotated questions about large topological groups; Strong compactness and a partition property; Countable Borel equivalence relations and quotient Borel spaces; Decisive creatures and large continuum; Models of real-valued measurability; Hausdorff ultrafilters; Block combinatorics; Maharam's problem; Universality of uniform Eberlein compacta; Linearly ordered compa…
Using a dictionary translating a variety of classical and modern covering properties into combinatorial properties of continuous images, we get a simple way to understand the interrelations between these properties in ZFC and in the realm of the trichotomy axiom for upward closed families of sets of natural numbers. While it is now known that the answer to the Hurewicz 1927 problem is positive, it is shown here that semifilter trichotomy implies a negative answer to a slightly weaker form of this problem.
We settle all problems posed by Scheepers, in his tribute paper to Gerlits, concerning the additivity of the Gerlits--Nagy property and related additivity numbers. We apply these results to compute the minimal number of concentrated sets of reals (in the sense of Besicovitch) whose union, when multiplied with a Gerlits--Nagy space, need not have Rothberger's property. We apply these methods to construct a large family of spaces, whose product with every Hurewicz space has Menger's property.
Whereas the Gerlits-Nagy gamma-property is strictly weaker than the Galvin-Miller strong gamma-property, the corresponding strong notions for the Menger, Hurewicz, Rothberger, Gerlits-Nagy (*), Arkhangel'skii and Sakai properties are equivalent to the original ones. The main result is that almost each of these properties admits the game theoretic characterization suggested by the stronger notion. We also solve a related problem of Kocinac and Scheepers, and answer a question of Iliadis.
W. Hurewicz proved that analytic Menger sets of reals are $σ$-compact and that co-analytic completely Baire sets of reals are completely metrizable. It is natural to try to generalize these theorems to projective sets. This has previously been accomplished by $V = L$ for projective counterexamples, and the Axiom of Projective Determinacy for positive results. For the first problem, the first author, S. Todorcevic, and S. Tokgöz have produced a finer analysis with much weaker axioms. We produce a similar analysis for the second problem, showing the two problems are essentially equivalent. We al…
We construct several topological groups with very strong combinatorial properties. In particular, we give simple examples of subgroups of the real line R (thus strictly o-bounded) which have the Hurewicz property but are not sigma-compact, and show that the product of two o-bounded subgroups of R^N may fail to be o-bounded, even when they satisfy the stronger property S1(Borel_Omega,Borel_Omega). This solves a problem of Tkacenko and Hernandez, and extends independent solutions of Krawczyk and Michalewski and of Banakh, Nickolas, and Sanchis. We also construct separable metrizable groups G of …
Contents of the issue: Selection Principles and special sets of reals: Open problems Winning the pressing down game but not Banach Mazur Ramsey classes of topological and metric spaces More on partitioning triples of countable ordinals Countable compact Hausdorff spaces need not be metrizable in ZF Every topological group is a group retract of a minimal group The complexity of classifying separable Banach spaces up to isomorphism Reals n-generic relative to some perfect tree Nagata's conjecture and countably compactifications in generic extensions A Class of Groups in Which All Unconditionally…