On the first Banach problem concerning condensations of absolute \(\kappa\)-Borel sets onto compacta (Q6607766)

In the setting of the Zermelo-Fraenkel axiomatization of Set Theory with the Axiom of Choice (ZFC) and the Generalized Continuum Hypothesis (GCH), it is shown that the continuum can be arbitrarily large and no absolute \(\kappa\)-Borel set of density \(\aleph_1<\kappa<\mathfrak{c}\) can be condensed onto a compactum. The indirect proof starts from the fact that, given an absolute \(\kappa\)-Borel set \(X\) of density \(\kappa\), there is a continuous bijection \(f: A \to X\) from a closed subset \(A\) of \(\kappa^\omega\), and hence if \(X\) admits a condensation onto a compactum \(K\) then one can find a covering \(\mathcal{C}\) of \(K\) consisting of at most \(c f[\kappa]^\omega\) Borel sets such that no subfamily of \(\mathcal{C}\) with cardinality \(<\kappa\) can cover \(K\). The key idea is the observation that this is impossible because there is a slight modification of the Cohen model in which we have \(cf[\kappa]^\omega = \min\{ \vert F\vert : F\) is a cofinal subset of \([\kappa]\} < \mathfrak{c}\) whenever \(\kappa < \mathfrak{c}\), and every covering (if any) of \(K\) consisting of \(< \mathfrak{c}\) Borel sets admits a subcovering with \(\aleph_1\) members.\par The method of the proof gives rise to construct interesting forcing extensions (Corollaries 4.2-4). In particular, for any finite subset \(A\) of \(\mathbb{N}\) with \( 1\in A\), there is a forcing extension in which any absolute \(\kappa\)-Banach space of density \(\kappa\) condenses onto the Hilbert cube if and only if \(\kappa \in \{ \aleph_n : n \in A\}\).