The additivity spectrum $ADD\left(ℐ\right)$ of an ideal $ℐ\subset 𝒫\left(I\right)$ is the set of all regular cardinals $\kappa$ such that there is an increasing chain $\{A_{\alpha }:\alpha <\kappa \}\subset ℐ$ with ${\bigcup }_{\alpha <\kappa }{A}_{\alpha }\notin ℐ$. We investigate which set $A$ of regular cardinals can be the additivity spectrum of certain ideals. Assume that $ℐ=ℬ$ or $ℐ=𝒩$, where $ℬ$ denotes the $\sigma$-ideal generated by the compact subsets of the Baire space ${\omega }^{\omega }$, and $𝒩$ is the ideal of the null sets. We show that if $A$ is a non-empty progressive set of uncountable regular cardinals and $pcf\left(A\right)=A$, then $ADD\left(ℐ\right)=A$ in some c.c.c generic extension of the...

We study splitting, infinitely often equal (ioe) and refining families from the descriptive point of view, i.e. we try to characterize closed, Borel or analytic such families by proving perfect set theorems. We succeed for $G_{\delta }$ hereditary splitting families and for analytic countably ioe families. We construct several examples of small closed ioe and refining families.

Under Martin’s axiom, collapsing of the continuum by Sacks forcing $𝕊$ is characterized by the additivity of Marczewski’s ideal (see [4]). We show that the same characterization holds true if $𝔡=𝔠$ proving that under this hypothesis there are no small uncountable maximal antichains in $𝕊$. We also construct a partition of ${}^{\omega }2$ into $𝔠$ perfect sets which is a maximal antichain in $𝕊$ and show that $s^0$-sets are exactly (subsets of) selectors of maximal antichains of perfect sets.

We investigate properties of permitted trigonometric thin sets and construct uncountable permitted sets under some set-theoretical assumptions.

If G is a group then the abelian subgroup spectrum of G is defined to be the set of all κ such that there is a maximal abelian subgroup of G of size κ. The cardinal invariant A(G) is defined to be the least uncountable cardinal in the abelian subgroup spectrum of G. The value of A(G) is examined for various groups G which are quotients of certain permutation groups on the integers. An important special case, to which much of the paper is devoted, is the quotient of the full symmetric group by the...

I isolate a simple condition that is equivalent to preservation of P-points in definable proper forcing.

We continue our work on weak diamonds [J. Appl. Anal. 15 (1009)]. We show that $2^{\omega }=\aleph ₂$ together with the weak diamond for covering by thin trees, the weak diamond for covering by meagre sets, the weak diamond for covering by null sets, and “all Aronszajn trees are special” is consistent relative to ZFC. We iterate alternately forcings specialising Aronszajn trees without adding reals (the NNR forcing from [“Proper and Improper Forcing”, Ch. V]) and < ω₁-proper ${}^{\omega }\omega$-bounding forcings adding reals. We show...

Recall that a P-set is a closed set X such that the intersection of countably many neighborhoods of X is again a neighborhood of X. We show that if 𝔱 = 𝔠 then there is a minimal right ideal of (βℕ,+) that is also a P-set. We also show that the existence of such P-sets implies the existence of P-points; in particular, it is consistent with ZFC that no minimal right ideal is a P-set. As an application of these results, we prove that it is both consistent with and independent of ZFC that the shift...