On perfect pre-images of \(\omega _{1}\) (Q1862089): Difference between revisions

This paper extends some earlier results about the existence of closed copies of \(\omega_1\) in countably compact spaces as a consequence of the Proper Forcing Axiom. It is shown that a space of countable tightness which maps by a perfect map onto \(\omega_1\) will contain a closed copy of \(\omega_1\) (assuming PFA). It is well-known that some set-theoretic assumption is needed, even in the case that the space is assumed to be first-countable, and something like countable tightness must be assumed since, for example, \(\beta\omega_1\) contains a subspace mapping perfectly onto the ordinal \(\omega_1\). The proof is loosely modelled on an earlier result by Balogh in that it ``shoots a copy of \(\omega_1\)'' through a space \(X\) but the interesting innovation in this paper is that a proper poset that does not add reals is constructed in order to compensate for how weak a local assumption that countable tightness is.