Sets and mappings in \(\beta S\) which are not Borel (Q1796315)

To a great extent, the article contains generalizations of some results from [\textit{N. Hindman} and \textit{D. Strauss}, Topology Appl. 220, 43--49 (2017; Zbl 1365.54022)]. The results are obtained in ZFC. For an infinite discrete semigroup \(S=(S,\cdot)\), the authors use the Stone space of \(S\) as the Čech-Stone compactification of the discrete space \(S\). If \(A\subseteq S\), then \(A^{\ast}=(\text{cl}_{\beta S}A)\setminus A\). A subset \(X\) of \(S\) is called a left (respectively, right) solution set of \(S\) if there exist \(a,b\in S\) such that \(X=\{x\in S: a\cdot x=b\}\) (respectively, \(X=\{x\in S: x\cdot a=b\}\)). The authors prove that if the semigroup \(S\) is countably infinite, left cancellative and there exists a finite bound on the size of right solution sets of \(S\), then the following subsets of \(\beta S\) are not Borel and they cannot be expressed as a union of continuum or fewer compact subsets of \(\beta S\): the set \(E(\beta S)\) of all idempotents of \(\beta S\), the smallest two-sided ideal \(K(\beta S)\) of \(\beta S\), \(S^{\ast}S^{\ast}\), any principal right ideal \(q\beta S\) of \(\beta S\) defined by an element \(q\in S^{\ast}\). This implies that if \(R\) is an arbitrary infinite discrete semigroup which is either left cancellative and has a finite bound on the size of right solution sets or which contains an infinite set of cancelable elements, then the set \(E(\beta R)\) of idempotents in \(\beta R\) is not Borel. For \(p\in \beta S\), \(\lambda_p:\beta S\to \beta S\) is defined by \(\lambda_p(x)=p\cdot x\) for each \(x\in \beta S\). Assuming that \(S\) is of cardinality \(\kappa\geq \omega\), the semigroup \(S\) is called very weakly left cancellative if any union of fewer than \(\kappa\) left solution sets of \(S\) has cardinality less than \(\kappa\). The authors generalize a result from [\textit{E. Glasner}, Topol. Proc. 33, 29--39 (2009; Zbl 1168.54015)] by proving that if \(S\) is a right cancellative and very weakly left cancellative semigroup, then, for each \(p\in S^{\ast}\), the mapping \(\lambda_p\) is not Borel. Finally, the Baire subsets of a compact Hausdorff space are defined as members of the smallest \(\sigma\)-algebra of subsets of \(X\) which contains the compact \(G_{\delta}\)-subsets of \(X\). It is proved that if \(X\) and \(Y\) are compact Hausdorff spaces, \(f:X\to Y\) is a continuous surjection, while \(B\) is a Baire subset of \(X\), then \(f[B]\) is a universally measurable subset of \(Y\).