Big Ramsey degrees using parameter spaces

DOI10.1016/J.AIM.2025.110386MaRDI QIDQ6931641zbMATH OpenFDO

Publication date 10 September 2025

Published in Advances in Mathematics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1016/J.AIM.2025.110386

big Ramsey degree Carlson-Simpson theorem generic partial order generic triangle-free graph parameter spaces structural Ramsey theory

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Trees (05C05) Generalized Ramsey theory (05C55) Ramsey theory (05D10) Combinatorics of partially ordered sets (06A07)

Review text

The paper under review belongs to the long tradition of Ramsey theory on relational structures, where analogs of the classical infinite Ramsey theorem are studied in a context where some additional structure is present (e.g., graph, order, distance, operations,...).\N\NMore precisely: the classical infinite Ramsey theorem [\textit{F. P. Ramsey}, Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. (2) 30, 264--286 (1929; JFM 55.0032.04)] states that for any positive integer \(m\), and any finite coloring \(c\) of the \(m\)-subsets of \(\mathbb N\), there exists an infinite subset of \(\mathbb N\) (i.e. a copy of \(\mathbb N\) inside itself) where the restriction of \(c\) takes only one color. While it was realized pretty early -- in the thirties -- by Sierpinski that this result fails in the structure \((\mathbb Q,<)\) because of the existence of a coloring of the pairs of rationals into two colors such that both colors always appear on any copy of \((\mathbb Q,<)\) inside itself, \textit{R. Laver} [J. Lond. Math. Soc., II. Ser. 29, 385--396 (1984; Zbl 0584.03034)] nevertheless showed in 1969 that for every \(m\), any finite coloring \(c\) of the copies of the finite linear order \(A_{m}\) with \(m\) elements inside \((\mathbb Q, <)\) may be restricted to a copy of \((\mathbb Q, <)\) where the restriction of \(c\) takes only a small number of colors, which depends only on \(m\) (and not on \(c\)). The exact value of this small number of colors has been explicitly computed by \textit{D. Devlin} [Some partition theorems and ultrafilters on \(\omega\). Hanover, NH: Dartmouth College (PhD Thesis) (1979)]. It has been referred to as the Big Ramsey degree of \(A_{m}\) inside \((\mathbb Q, <)\) since the work of \textit{A. S. Kechris} et al. [Geom. Funct. Anal. 15, No. 1, 106--189 (2005; Zbl 1084.54014)], where a more systematic study of similar properties was called for in the more general context of Fraïssé structures, whose prototypical examples are the countable random graph and its \(K_{n}\)-free analogs, the universal homogeneous partial order, the countable atomless Boolean algebra, or the vector space of countable dimension over a finite field.\N\NFor a long time, besides \((\mathbb Q, <)\), the countable random graph and the dense local order were essentially the only Fraïssé structures for which finiteness of big Ramsey degrees was known. All proofs relied on a Ramsey-type result on trees due to \textit{K. R. Milliken} [J. Comb. Theory, Ser. A 26, 215--237 (1979; Zbl 0429.05035)].\N\NThings changed when \textit{N. Dobrinen} showed in [J. Math. Log. 20, No. 2, Article ID 2050012, 75 p. (2020; Zbl 1485.03185)] that big Ramsey degrees are also finite in the triangle-free version of the countable random graph. The proof that was used -- based on set-theoretic forcing -- immediately led to several other developments and proof techniques, but those were unable to capture the universal homogeneous partial order.\N\NOne of the main purposes of the article under review is to completely solve that problem. It does so thanks to a very clever use of another Ramsey-type result, the Carlson-Simpson theorem [\textit{T. J. Carlson} and \textit{S. G. Simpson}, Adv. Math. 53, 265--290 (1984; Zbl 0564.05005)], which allows to completely avoid the use of forcing. Quite surprisingly, this new path also provides a better understanding of several previously known Ramsey-type results on partial orders and triangle-free graphs, including that of Dobrinen mentioned above. Those aspects are presented in detail, as well as several different tracks of potential applications.\N\NThe paper is extremely well-written, and a particular attention was devoted to make it accessible despite the incompressible technicalities that are attached to this domain of mathematics.\N\NFor these reasons, it will probably become one of the important landmarks in structural Ramsey theory.

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