A connection between decomposability of ultrafilters and possible cofinalities

Abstract: We introduce the decomposability spectrum

K_{D} = l a m b d a g e q o m e g a | D e x t i s l a m b d a e x t - d e c o m p o s a b l e

of an ultrafilter

D

, and show that Shelah's

p c f

theory influences the possible values

K_{D}

can take. For example, we show that if

a a a

is a set of regular cardinals,

m u i n p c f a

, the ultrafilter

D

is

| a a a |^{+}

-complete and

K_{D} s u b s e t e q a a a

, then

m u i n K_{D}

. As a consequence, we show that if

l a m b d a

is singular and for some

l a m b d a^{'} < l a m b d a

K_{D}

contains all regular cardinals in

[l a m b d a^{'}, l a m b d a)

then: (a) if

c f l a m b d a = o m e g a

then either

l a m b d a i n K_{D}

, or

l a m b d a^{+} i n K_{D}

; and (b) if

D

is

(c f l a m b d a)^{+}

-complete then

l a m b d a^{+} i n K_{D}

, and

p p (l a m b d a) = l a m b d a^{+}

.

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