Cardinal sequences of LCS spaces under GCH

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Abstract: We give full characterization of the sequences of regular cardinals that may arise as cardinal sequences of locally compact scattered spaces under GCH. The proofs are based on constructions of universal locally compact scattered spaces.


Given a locally compact scattered (a.k.a. LCS) space \(X\), the Cantor-Bendixson hierarchy is defined as follows: \(X(0) = \{\)isolated points of \(X\}\); for \(\alpha > 0\), \(X(\alpha) = \{\)isolated points of \(X \setminus \bigcup_{\beta < \alpha}X_{\beta}\}\). The least \(\alpha\) for which \(X(\alpha) = 0\) is the height of \(X\) and is denoted \(\mathrm{ht} X\). A cardinal sequence \(f\) for a locally compact scattered space \(X\) is a function \(f: \mathrm{ht} X \rightarrow CARDS\) so that each \(f(\beta) = |X(\beta)|\). By a result of Juhasz and Weiss, cardinal sequences of length \(\leq \omega_1\) are completely characterized (basically: anything that ought to happen does happen). By results of Just and Baumgartner, there is no ZFC characterization above \(\omega_1\). But an earlier result of the authors shows that under GCH you can characterize the cardinal sequences of spaces of height \(< \omega_2\). The purpose of this paper is to explore what can happen for height \(\omega_2\) and above. Let \(\mathcal C(\alpha)\) be the collection of cardinal sequences for LCS spaces of height \(\alpha\), and let \(\mathcal C_{\lambda}(\alpha) = \{f \in \mathcal C(\alpha): f(0) = \lambda = \inf_{\beta < \alpha}|f(\beta)|\}\). The authors observe that if \(\lambda \geq \omega_2\) then \(f \in \mathcal C(\omega_2)\) iff \(f|_{\alpha} \in \mathcal C_{\lambda}(\alpha)\) for each \(\alpha < \omega_2\). What about \(\mathcal C_{\omega_1}(\omega_2)\)? This requires another definition: \(\mathcal D_{\omega}(\alpha) =\{f \in \{\omega, \omega_1\}^{\alpha}: (0) = \omega\}\). If \(\lambda > \omega\), then \(\mathcal D_{\lambda}(\alpha)= \{f \in \{\lambda, \lambda^+\}^{\alpha}: f(0) = \lambda\), and \(L = f^{-1}(\lambda)\) satisfies the following: if \(\beta \in L\) then \(\beta + 1 \in L \cup \{\alpha\}\); and if \(A \subset L\) where \(|A| = \kappa < \lambda\) then \(\sup A \in L \cup \{\alpha\}\). In a previous paper, the authors proved that, under GCH, \(\mathcal C_{\omega_1}(\delta) \subseteq \mathcal D_{\omega_1}(\delta)\) for \(\delta < \omega_2\). \textbf{Theorem.} Assume GCH. Let \(\omega_2 \leq \alpha < \omega_3\). There is a forcing \(\mathbb P\) which preserves GCH so that \(V^{\mathbb P} \Vdash \mathcal C_{\omega_1}(\delta) = \mathcal D_{\omega_1}(\delta)\) for \(\delta < \omega_3\). This is a special case of a more general theorem in the paper: \textbf{Theorem 2.} Given an uncountable regular cardinal \(\kappa\) , \(\kappa^{< \kappa} = \kappa\) and \(2^{\kappa} = \kappa^+\), then if \(\delta < \kappa^{++}\) there is a \(\kappa\)-complete \(\kappa^+\)-cc partial order \(\mathbb P\) with \(|\mathbb P| = \kappa^+\) so that \(V^{\mathbb P} \Vdash \mathcal C_{\kappa}(\delta) = \mathcal D_{\kappa}(\delta)\). The proof proceeds by using \(\mathbb P\) to force the existence of a \(\mathcal C_{\kappa}(\delta)\) universal LCS space, i.e. a space \(X\) whose cardinal sequence lies in \(\mathcal C_{\kappa}(\delta)\) and satisfying: \(\mathcal C_{\kappa}(\delta) \subset \{\)cardinal sequences of open subspaces of \(X\}\). Finally, the authors show that a consistent (with GCH) characterization of \(\mathcal C(\alpha)\) is possible for each \(\alpha\): \textbf{Theorem 3.} Suppose \(f \in V \Vdash GCH, \mathrm{dom} f = \alpha\). Then there is a cardinal-preserving GCH-preserving forcing \(\mathbb P\) in which \(V^{\mathbb P} \Vdash (f \in \mathcal C_{\alpha}\) iff there is \(n < \omega\), a decreasing sequence \(\lambda_0 >\cdots > \lambda_{n-1}\), and \(\alpha_0, \cdots \alpha_{n-1}\) with \(\alpha = \alpha_0 + \cdots \alpha_{n-1}\) so that \(f = f_0 \frown f_1\cdots \frown f_{n-1}\) where each \(f_i \in \mathcal D_{\lambda_i}(\alpha_i))\). The proof basically proceeds by finite iteration of the forcings provided by Theorem 2. A number of questions remain, in particular whether the characterization of Theorem 3 can be uniform, i.e., under GCH can you prove: \(\forall \alpha \;f \in \mathcal C_{\alpha}\) iff there is \(n < \omega\), a decreasing sequence \(\lambda_0 >D\cdots > \lambda_{n-1}\) and \(\alpha_0,\cdots \alpha_{n-1}\) with \(\alpha = \alpha_0 + \cdots \alpha_{n-1}\) so that \(f = f_0 \frown f_1\cdots \frown f_{n-1}\) where each \(f_i \in \mathcal D_{\lambda_i}(\alpha_i)\)?











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