PFA and \(\omega\) \(*_ 1\) (Q1103905)

This paper is concerned with properties of the compact space \(\omega\) \(*_ 1=\beta \omega_ 1-\omega_ 1\) (where \(\omega_ 1\) has the discrete topology). The space \(\omega\) \(*_ 1\) is considered as a compactification of its dense subspace of nonuniform ultrafilters: \(SU(\omega_ 1)=\omega\) \(*_ 1-U(\omega_ 1)\), where \(U(\omega_ 1)=\{p\in \omega\) \(*_ 1:(\forall P\in p)(| P| =\aleph_ 1)\}\). Most of the proofs involve set-theoretic concepts such as \(\dag\), the proper forcing axiom (PFA), the thining out principal, and forcing. Some typical results are that under the assumption of \(\dag\), there exists a set \(D\subset SU(\omega_ 1)\), such that \(| D| =\omega_ 1\), and \(U(\omega_ 1)\) is contained in the closure of D, while under PFA, there exists \(p\in U(\omega_ 1)\) such that for every \(D\subset SU(\omega_ 1)\) with \(| D| =\aleph_ 1\), p is not in the closure of D. Another result states that under PFA, if two subsets of \(SU(\omega_ 1)\), each having cardinality \(\omega_ 1\), can be separated by open subsets of \(\omega\) \(*_ 1\), then they can be separated by clopen sets. This result was motivated by an unpublished result of S. Shelah which states: two subsets of \(\omega\) \(*=\beta \omega -\omega\), each having cardinality \(\aleph_ 1\), which can be separated by open sets in \(\omega\) * can be separated by clopen sets.