Combining extensions of the Hales-Jewett theorem with Ramsey theory in other structures (Q2335693)

Summary: The Hales-Jewett theorem states that given any finite nonempty set \({\mathbb A}\) and any finite coloring of the free semigroup \(S\) over the alphabet \({\mathbb A}\) there is a variable word over \({\mathbb A}\) all of whose instances are the same color. This theorem has some extensions involving several distinct variables occurring in the variable word. We show that, when combined with a sufficiently well behaved homomorphism, the relevant variable word simultaneously satisfies a Ramsey-theoretic conclusion in the other structure. As an example we show that if \(\tau\) is the homomorphism from the set of variable words into the natural numbers which associates to each variable word \(w\) the number of occurrences of the variable in \(w\), then given any finite coloring of \(S\) and any infinite sequence of natural numbers, there is a variable word \(w\) whose instances are monochromatic and \(\tau(w)\) is a sum of distinct members of the given sequence. Our methods rely on the algebraic structure of the Stone-Čech compactification of \(S\) and the other semigroups that we consider. We show for example that if \(\tau\) is as in the paragraph above, there is a compact subsemigroup \(P\) of \(\beta{\mathbb N}\) which contains all of the idempotents of \(\beta{\mathbb N}\) such that, given any \(p\in P\), any \(A\in p\), and any finite coloring of \(S\), there is a variable word \(w\) whose instances are monochromatic and \(\tau(w)\in A\). We end with a new short algebraic proof of an infinitary extension of the Graham-Rothschild parameter sets theorem.