Downward closure of depth in countable Boolean algebras (Q1762475)

The depth of a countable Boolean algebra (BA) is defined as follows. If \(A\) is superatomic, one considers the sequence of ideals on \(A\): \(I_0=\{0\}\), \(I_{\alpha+1}\) is the ideal on \(A\) consisting of \(a\in A\) such that \(a/I_\alpha\) is a finite sum of atoms, and \(I_\gamma=\bigcup_{\beta<\gamma}I_\beta\) for \(\gamma\) limit. The rank of \(A\) is the least ordinal \(\alpha\) such that \(I_{\alpha+1}=A\); this is a successor ordinal. A measure on a countable BA \(A\) is a mapping from \(A\) to some monoid \(M\) satisfying some simple conditions. For any countable BA \(A\) and \(a\in A\) we define \(\mu_A(a)=\sup\{\text{rank}(b):b\leq a\) and \(A|b\) is superatomic\(\}\). Then the canonical measure on \(A\) is defined by \(\sigma_A(a)=-1\) if \(A|a\) is superatomic, and \(\sigma_A(a)=\min\{\mu_A(b):b\leq a\) and \(A|(a\cdot-b\) is superatomic\(\}\) for \(A|a\) not superatomic. This is a measure with monoid \(\{-1\}\cup\omega_1\). Given a measure \(\mu:A\rightarrow M\) one defines the derived measure \(D\mu\) by letting \((D\mu)(a)\) be the set of all finite sequences \(\langle\mu(a_0),\dots,\mu(a_{m-1})\rangle\) with \(a\) the disjoint sum of all \(a_i\) (some of which may be 0). This operation \(D\) can be repeated, even transfinitely many times. The measure \(D\) is stable if \(\mu(a)=\mu(b)\) implies \((D\mu)(a)=(D\mu)(b)\) for all \(a,b\in A\). The depth of \(A\) is the least \(\alpha\) such that \(D^\alpha\) is stable. This paper studies this notion of depth. Some results are: There is a countable BA whose depths of relative algebras are precisely the sets \(\{0,\dots,\alpha,\alpha+2\}\) for each ordinal \(\alpha\); or \(\{0,1,\omega^\alpha\}\), or \(\{0,2,\omega^\alpha\}\). Every countable BA of depth at least one has a depth-zero relative algebra, and either a depth-one relative algebra or a depth-2 relative algebra.