Patching ideal families on \({\mathcal P}_\kappa\lambda\) (Q750433)

Suppose that \(\kappa\) is an uncountable weakly inaccessible cardinal, \(\lambda\) is a cardinal, and \(\kappa\leq \lambda\). By an ideal family on \({\mathcal P}_{\kappa}\lambda\), the author means a function I on \({\mathcal P}_{\kappa}\lambda \cup \{\lambda \}\) such that, for each \(x\in {\mathcal P}_{\kappa}\lambda \cup \{\lambda \}\), \(I_ x\) is a (not necessarily proper) \(<| x\cap \kappa |\)-complete normal ideal on \({\mathcal P}_{| x\cap \kappa |}x\). His focus is on ideal families that are patching, i.e. ideal families I such that for any \(C\in I^*_{\lambda}\), \(\{\) \(x\in {\mathcal P}_{\kappa}\lambda |\) \(C\cap {\mathcal P}_{| x\cap \kappa |}x\in I^*_ x\}\in I^*_{\lambda}\) with \(I^*_ x\) being the filter dual to \(I_ x\). He proves the following three facts: (1) The ideal family NS, which assigns the ideal \(NS_ x\) of nonstationary subsets of \({\mathcal P}_{| x\cap \kappa |}x\) to each x, is patching; (2) The ideal family that assigns to each x the ideal of subsets of \({\mathcal P}_{| x\cap \kappa |}x\) that are not almost ineffable is patching; (3) If \(\lambda^{<\kappa}=\lambda\), then the ideal family that assigns to each x the ideal of subsets of \({\mathcal P}_{| x\cap \kappa |}x\) that are not ineffable is patching. Regarding (1), it should be noted that the author defines \(NS_ x\) to be the improper ideal if \(| x\cap \kappa |\) is singular. The notions of (almost) ineffable subsets of \({\mathcal P}_{| x\cap \kappa |}x\), used in (2) and (3), are natural adaptations of the corresponding concepts for subsets of a cardinal, and are due to D. M. Carr. The proof of (3) requires an injection \(s:{\mathcal P}_{\kappa}\lambda \to \lambda\) for which the set of all \(x\in {\mathcal P}_{\kappa}\lambda\) such that \(| x\cap \kappa |\) is regular and \(\forall y\in {\mathcal P}_{\kappa}\lambda:\) \([y\in {\mathcal P}_{| x\cap \kappa |}x\Leftrightarrow s(y)\in x]\) is large enough. The assumption \(\lambda^{<\kappa}=\lambda\) is designed to ensure its existence. Facts (2) and (3) are interesting only if the ideal families in question assign proper ideals to \(\lambda\) and sufficiently many \(x\in {\mathcal P}_{\kappa}\lambda\). The paper also includes discussion of situations in whch this requirement is met. \{Remark: In Theorem 2.6, the author asserts that the ideal family NS is patching if and only if \(\kappa\) is weakly Mahlo. However, since \(NS_ x\) is defined to be the improper ideal for x with \(| x\cap \kappa |\) singular, it is easily seen that NS is patching in a degenerate sense if \(\kappa\) is not weakly Mahlo. Therefore NS is patching regardless of whether \(\kappa\) is weakly Mahlo or not.\}