Walks on ordinals and their characteristics

Research exposition (monographs, survey articles) pertaining to mathematical logic and foundations (03-02) Partition relations (03E02) Ordinal and cardinal numbers (03E10) Large cardinals (03E55) Applications of set theory (03E75) Combinatorics of partially ordered sets (06A07) Isomorphic theory (including renorming) of Banach spaces (46B03) Separability of topological spaces (54D65) Computation of special functions and constants, construction of tables (65D20)

Review text

The first uncountable ordinal, \(\omega_1\), behaves in a markedly different way than the first infinite ordinal, \(\omega_0\). Every continuous real-valued function on the space~\(\omega_1\) is constant on a tail; the function \(n\mapsto 2^{-n}\) is continuous on~\(\omega_0\) and injective. Kőnig's Lemma on branches in infinite trees fails for trees of height~\(\omega_1\), as witnessed by Aronszajn trees. The function \(n\mapsto n-1\) is injective and maps every finite nonzero ordinal to a smaller one; the Pressing-Down lemma states that a `pressing-down' function on~\(\omega_1\) must be constant on a big set. The author of this book has spent much time investigating the reason behind this behaviour of~\(\omega_1\) and makes an excellent case for having discovered from which all things flow. The idea is to assign to every countable ordinal~\(\alpha\) a cofinal subset~\(C_\alpha\); if \(\alpha=\beta+1\) put \(C_\alpha=\{\beta\}\) and if \(\alpha\)~is a limit ordinal let \(C_\alpha\) be some simple increasing sequence of successor ordinals, cofinal in~\(\alpha\). Given ordinals \(\alpha\) and \(\beta\) with \(\alpha<\beta\) one can `walk' from~\(\beta\) down to~\(\alpha\), guided by the sets \(C_\eta\): start at \(\beta_0=\beta\), then let \(\beta_1=\min\{\xi\in C_{\beta_0}:\xi\geq\alpha\}\), \(\beta_2=\min\{\xi\in C_{\beta_1}:\xi\geq\alpha\}\), \dots, until \(\beta_n=\alpha\) for some~\(n=n(\alpha,\beta)\), which will happen of course. Thus one obtains 1)~the set \(\operatorname{Tr}(\alpha,\beta)=\{\beta_i:i\leq n\}\), the trace of the walk; 2)~the number \(n(\alpha,\beta)\) of steps from~\(\beta\) to~\(\alpha\); 3)~the sequence \(\rho_0(\alpha,\beta)=\langle k_i:i<n\rangle\) of finite ordinals from which~\(\operatorname{Tr}(\alpha,\beta)\) may be reconstructed: \(k_i=|C_{\beta_i}\cap\alpha|\), the position of~\(\beta_{i+1}\) in~\(C_{\beta_i}\). This list is not exhaustive but it will do for this review. Rather than giving an exhausting enumeration of all results I will try to convey its spirit by describing some of its highlights (in this reviewer's opinion). To begin, the function~\(\rho_0\) yields, without any real effort, an Aronszajn tree. First order \(\omega^{<\omega}\) lexicographically; this gives a dense countable order and for each~\(\beta\) the sequence \(s_\beta=\langle \rho_0(\alpha,\beta):\alpha<\beta\rangle\) is strictly increasing. The initial segments of these sequences form an Aronszajn tree; the level sets are automatically countable as are the branches. The lexicographic order of \(\{s_\beta:\beta\in\omega_1\}\) yields a linearly ordered set~\(C(\rho_0)\) whose square is the union of countably many chains. Under \(\roman{MA}_{\aleph_1}\) this order or its reverse embed into each uncountable linear order whose square is the union of countably many chains. This is one step on the way to \textit{J. T. Moore}'s result [Ann. Math. (2) 163, No. 2, 669--688 (2006; Zbl 1143.03026)] that, under the Proper Forcing Axiom, every uncountable linear order contains a copy of \(\omega_1\) or its reverse, of \(C(\rho_0)\) or its reverse, or of some \(\aleph_1\)-dense subset of the real line. A combination of \(\operatorname{Tr}\) and \(\rho_0\) yields an older result by the author [Acta Math. 159, 261--294 (1987; Zbl 0658.03028)]: a colouring \(c:[\omega_1]^2\to\omega_1\) such that \(c``[X]^2=\omega_1\) for \textit{each} uncountable subset~\(X\) of~\(\omega_1\) (an `anti-Ramsey theorem' for \(\omega_1\), so to speak). First put \(\Delta_0(\alpha,\beta)=\min\{\xi\leq\alpha: \rho_0(\xi,\alpha)\neq\rho_0(\xi,\beta)\}\) and then let \([\alpha\beta]=\min\bigl(\text{Tr} (\Delta_0(\alpha,\beta),\beta)\setminus\alpha\bigr)\). For each uncountable~\(X\) the set \(\{[\alpha\beta]:\alpha,\beta\in X\}\) contains a closed and unbounded subset, so that a partition of~\(\omega_1\) into \(\aleph_1\) many stationary sets yields the colouring~\(c\). The family of sequences \(\langle n(\xi,\alpha):\xi<\alpha\rangle\) derived from the number-of-steps function \(n(\alpha,\beta)\) is an example of a coherent-but-not-trivial object: it is coherent in the sense that \(|n(\xi,\alpha)-n(\xi,\beta)|\) is uniformly bounded whenever~\(\alpha<\beta\); it is non-trivial in the sense that each total function \(g:\omega_1\to\omega_1\) has infinite distance to at least one sequence. This idea is lifted to arbitrary regular cardinals and yields a way of recognizing non-trivial sequences \(\langle C_\alpha:\alpha<\theta\rangle\). The book is worth reading for these and related questions alone but there is more. Each of the functions \(\text{Tr}\), \(n\), \(\rho_0\) and others may be used to construct Aronszajn trees, ordered sets like~\(C(\rho_0)\) and so on. Under \(\roman{MA}_{\aleph_1}\) and related axioms these objects are, if not isomorphic, all equally canonical. For instance, the ordered sets all share the decomposability and minimality properties of~\(C(\rho_0)\). Likewise, in the case of Aronszajn trees, those constructed in the book are archetypal in the sense that one cannot expect to construct very dissimilar objects in~\(\roman{ZFC}\) alone. There is more, much more, that can be done using walks as described above and it goes without saying that the structure of the sequence \(\langle C_\alpha:\alpha<\theta\rangle\) determines the outcome of the constructions. Thus there is a whole chapter on square-sequences with refinements of older results and new applications. This book is simply recommended reading for anyone with an interest in uncountable constructions and Chapters~2 and~3 may even be considered essential reading. The latter chapter develops the function~\(\rho\), which is as close to a (natural) metric on~\(\omega_1\) as one can get. The basic properties of~\(\rho\) are that \(\rho(\alpha,\beta)\geq\max\rho_0(\alpha,\beta)\) and that it obeys the `triangle inequalities' \(\rho(\alpha,\gamma)\leq\max\{\rho(\alpha,\beta),\rho(\beta,\gamma)\}\) and \(\rho(\alpha,\beta)\leq\max\{\rho(\alpha,\gamma),\rho(\beta,\gamma)\}\). From~\(\rho\) one defines (again canonically) a Hausdorff gap, a Cohen-name for a Souslin tree and some rather rigid Banach spaces. I hope to have enticed the reader into at least picking up this book.

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