An exact Ramsey principle for block sequences (Q847024)

W.\,T.\thinspace Gowers' famous block Ramsey theorem in Banach spaces [\textit{W.\,T.\thinspace Gowers}, ``An infinite Ramsey theorem and some Banach-space dichotomies'', Ann.\ of Math.\ (2) 156, 797--833 (2002; Zbl 1030.46005)] has been reconsidered now by a number of authors, as detailed in this paper. All these proofs involve fattening of sets via approximation. This paper eliminates these approximations in the relevant games. The general setting is a vector space \(E\) over a countable field \({\mathcal F}\) with basis \((e_n)_{n=1}^\infty\). For an infinite-dimensional subspace \(X\subseteq E\), Gowers' game \(G_X\) is a 2 player game where \(I\) chooses \(Y_0\subseteq X\) (infinite-dimensional subspace), \(II\) chooses \(x_0 \in Y_0\), \(I\) chooses \(Y_1 \subseteq X\), \(II\) chooses \(x_1 \in Y_1\) with \(x_0 < x_1\) (as blocks), and the plays continue thusly. The infinite asymptotic game is similarly defined with \(I\) choosing integers \(n_0,n_1,\dots\) and \(II\) choosing \(x_i\)'s with \(n_0 <x_0 <n_1<x_1 <\cdots\) (i.e., \(II\) chooses \(x_i \in \text{span}(e_j)_{j\geq n_i}\)). \((x_i)_{i=1}^\infty\) is called the outcome of either game. If \(\vec x\) is a finite block sequence, \(G_X(\vec x)\) and \(F_X(\vec x)\) are similarly played, but the outcome is now \(\vec x^\frown (x_0,x_1,\dots)\). \(A\subseteq E^\infty\) is strategically Ramsey if for all \(V\subseteq E\) and all \(\vec z\), there exists \(W\subseteq V\) so that either (a)~\(II\) has a strategy in \(G_W(\vec z)\) to choose the outcome to lie in \(A\), or (b)~\(I\) has a strategy in \(F_W(z)\) to force the outcome to lie outside of \(A\). The author proves that analytic sets in \(E^\infty\) (given the product topology of the discrete topology on \(E\)) are strategically Ramsey. In Section~5, these results are applied to normed spaces \(X\subseteq E\), and fattening enters the picture. The games are played with \({\mathcal F}\) a countable subfield of \({\mathbb R}\) (or \({\mathbb C}\)) and the norm is assumed to take values in \({\mathcal F}\). If \(I\) has a strategy in \(F_X\) to win for \(A\subseteq E^\infty\), for all \(\Delta = (\delta_i)\), \(\delta_i >0\), it is shown that there are intervals \(I_0 < I_1 < \dots\) in \({\mathbb N}\) so that any block sequence \((x_i)\) in \(\text{Ball}(X)\) satisfying \(\forall n\, \exists m\) \(I_0 < x_n < I_m < x_{n+1}\) must lie in \(A_\Delta\). Another result is that, if \(A\) is strategically Ramsey and for some \(\Delta\), \(\text{int}_\Delta (A)\) is large (i.e., for all \(X\subseteq E\), \(\sim (\sim A)_\Delta \cap \text{Ball}(X)\neq \emptyset\)), then there exists \(X\subseteq E\), so that \(II\) has a strategy in \(G_X\) to play in \(A\). This is shown to yield Gowers' theorem. More results are included, some under set theoretic hypotheses.