7
$\begingroup$

Rado's conjecture (one of many equivalent formulations) states: any non-special tree has a non-special subtree of cardinality $\aleph_1$.

"Special" means a tree can be decomposed into countably many antichains. Hence in particular, special trees have no cofinal branches of uncountable length.

I'm asking for a reference of the consistency of RC with not CH. The usual Levy collapse of a supercompact cardinal is good for RC + CH, and the key observation is that no countably closed forcing can specialize a tree of height $\omega_1$. With reals being added I'm not so sure.

$\endgroup$
2
  • $\begingroup$ Rado's conjecture is also consistent with $\mathfrak c=\aleph_2$. Stevo indicates it follows from combining his arguments (from the "On a conjecture of R. Rado" paper) with Mitchell's techniques (from his 1972 Aronszajn trees paper). In print he in fact states several times that his 1983 paper shows this although the paper only deals literally with the case of $\mathsf{CH}$. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 11, 2017 at 19:38
  • $\begingroup$ Yes I think RC implies $\mathfrak{c}\leq \aleph_2$. I can reason through Mitchell's argument granted the fact that Cohen forcing (adding subsets of $\omega$) can't specialize a non-special tree of size $\aleph_1$ and height $\omega_1$. I might be missing something obvious. $\endgroup$
    – Jing Zhang
    Commented Oct 11, 2017 at 19:53

1 Answer 1

4
$\begingroup$

Rado's conjecture holds in Mitchell's model (of course, start with a strongly compact instead of a weakly compact) granted the following: If $T$ if a non-special tree of height $\omega_1$, then $T$ remains non-special after Cohen forcing $Add(\omega, \kappa)$ for any regular $\kappa$. It suffices to show the case where $T$ has size $\aleph_1$ and $\kappa=\omega_1$ (they are in fact equivalent). We will show this.

We might assume $T$ is branchless and $\kappa$ is uncountable as if there is a branch through $T$, $T$ can't be special in any $\omega_1$-preserving extension and if $\kappa=\omega$, then we can cook up a function in the ground as the size of the forcing is countable.

Now suppose for the sake of contradiction, $\dot{g}: T\to \omega$ is forced to be a specializing function. For each $t\in T$, let $p_t\in Add(\omega,\kappa)$ be a condition deciding the value of $\dot{g}(t)$ to be $n_t\in \omega$. We might shrink to a non-special subtree $T'$ of $T$ such that there exists $n\in \omega$, for all $t\in T'$, $n_t=n$. We will develop a kind of $\Delta$-system lemma on non-special trees, aka the goal is to find non-special subtree $T''$ of $T'$ such that any $t,t'\in T''$ such that $t<t'$, $p_t$ and $p_{t'}$ are compatible. This will be the desired contradiction.

First consider $C=\{t\in T': \forall s\sqsubset t \ s\neq t, dom(p_s)\subset ht(t)\}$ ($ht$ is the height function computed in $T'$). $C$ is non-special (this can be seen using the pressing down lemma for non-speical trees by Todorcevic). Now consider the following pressing down function on $C$, for $t\in C$ if it is a successor, map it to its predecessor in $C$, it is a limit, then map it to $s\sqsubset t$ such that $dom(p_t)\cap ht(t)\subset ht(s)$. Now by pressing down lemma for trees, we get non-special $T^*\leq C$ such that the mapping is constant, say $s\in C$. Shrink further we can get a non-special $T''$ subtree of $T^*$ and a finite partial function $r: ht(s)\to 2$ such that for all $t\in T''$, $p_t\restriction ht(t)= r$. Fix $t<t'\in T''$, we need to show $p_t, p_{t'}$ are compatible. But this is clear as $p_t\restriction ht(t)=p_{t'}\restriction ht(t')$ and $dom(p_t)\subset ht(t')$.

$\endgroup$
2
  • $\begingroup$ Rather than a strongly compact, you start with a supercompact, don't you? $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 18, 2017 at 21:31
  • $\begingroup$ @AndrésE.Caicedo I think it works with strongly compact as well, say if the $T$ given is of cardinality $\theta$, then we can take the embedding witnessing $\lambda$-compactness for some $\lambda>\theta$. That's good enough since non-specialness transfers upwards. $\endgroup$
    – Jing Zhang
    Commented Oct 18, 2017 at 21:43

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .