A note on canonical functions (Q912090)

Given \(f,g\in^{\omega_ 1}\omega_ 1\), put \(f<g\) just in case \(\{\gamma: f(\gamma)\geq g(\gamma)\}\) is nonstationary. We say that a strictly increasing sequence \(f_{\alpha}\in^{\omega_ 1}\omega_ 1\), \(\alpha <\delta\), is canonical if for any other strictly increasing sequence \(g_{\alpha}\in^{\omega_ 1}\omega_ 1\), \(\alpha <\delta\), we have \(f_{\alpha}\leq g_{\alpha}\) for all \(\alpha\). The construction of a canonical sequence of length \(\omega_ 2\) is standard. A. Hajnal has shown that, assuming \(V=L\), there is no canonical sequence of length \(\omega_ 2+1\). Starting from a model of CH, the authors build for any ordinal \(\delta\), a cardinal preserving extension in which there is a canonical sequence of length \(\delta\). The authors point out that this result generalizes to any regular uncountable cardinal \(\kappa\).