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I have three related questions.

Question 1: Is there a subset $X$ of the Hilbert cube $[0,1]^{\Bbb N}$ of cardinality continuum, such that for each sequence $a\in [0,1]^{\Bbb N}$ with $\sum a_n$ finite, the cardinality of the projection $$\Big\{\sum_{n=1}^\infty x_na_n : x\in X\Big\}$$ is smaller than the continuum?

Question 2: Is there consistently such a set?

It would have been awesome if there is, provably, no such set $X$. Too good to be true?

Question 3: What if the Continuum Hypothesis holds?

It is known that if the cardinality of $X$ is smaller than the continuum, then there is a bijective projection as above. This is proved in Carlson's paper Strong measure zero and strongly meager sets, using analytic functions. The argument does not extend to sets of cardinality continuum.

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    $\begingroup$ In the same vein: mathoverflow.net/questions/330255/… $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 14 at 11:22
  • $\begingroup$ What happens if one just requires the map just to be a linear map instead of being given this way ? (There are more linear maps, like for example the linear map that sends $x_*$ to the sum, if it converges and to zero otherwise). $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 15 at 8:44
  • $\begingroup$ @HenrikRüping That would be interesting, too! In fact, if one could prove that for each $X$ of size continuum there is a uniformly continuous map with image of cardinality continuum, that would be equally interesting for me. However, I cannot see a manageable way to tackle this problem other than considering linear maps of the form I suggested. $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 15 at 9:12
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    $\begingroup$ You might be interested in the answer to my old question: arxiv.org/abs/2403.09785 $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 18 at 6:44
  • $\begingroup$ @AlexanderOsipov indeed, I noticed this paper today and it is indeed interesting (despite not having direct implication on my question). $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 18 at 11:24

1 Answer 1

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Consistently, there is no such set.

Given $X\subset [0,1]^{\mathbb N}$ of cardinality continuum it suffices to find $z\in(0,1)$ such that $x\mapsto \sum_n x_n z^n$ is injective on some subset $X'\subseteq X$ of cardinality continuum. This is then more or less the same setting as [1, Theorem 2.1] where it is shown that $z$ exists in certain Cohen forcing extensions. The differences are that we want a real $z\in(0,1)$ instead of $z\in\mathbb C,$ and the functions are not entire, they're just holomorphic in the unit disc. But the proof goes through with those changes.

[1] Kumar, Ashutosh; Shelah, Saharon, On a question about families of entire functions, Fundam. Math. 239, No. 3, 279-288 (2017). ZBL1390.03044. Also at Shelah's archive.

Under CH, there is such a set.

Assume CH. Take a Hamel basis $\{b_\beta: \beta\in\omega_1\}$ of $\ell^1(\mathbb N),$ the space of absolutely summable sequences. Define $\phi_\beta$ to be the projection by $b_\beta,$ so $\phi_\beta(x)=\sum_n b_\beta(n) x(n)$ for all $x$ in the space of bounded sequences $\ell^\infty(\mathbb N).$

Lemma. For each $\alpha\in\omega_1\setminus\omega$ there exists $x_\alpha\in[0,1]^{\mathbb N}$ such that $\phi_\beta(x_\alpha)$ is rational for $\beta<\alpha$ and irrational for $\beta=\alpha.$ (The restriction to infinite $\alpha$ is just to avoid having to treat the finite case.)

Proof. Pick a bijection $\beta:\omega\to\alpha+1.$ The functions $\phi_{\beta(n)}$ are linearly independent (as functionals on $\ell^\infty(\mathbb N)$). By linear algebra, for each $n\in\omega$ we can pick $z_n\in \ell^\infty(\mathbb N)$ such that $\phi_{\beta(m)}(z_n)=0$ for $m<n$ and $\phi_{\beta(n)}(z_n)\neq 0.$ Let $c=(\tfrac12, \tfrac12, \dots).$ Let's try a solution of the form $$x_\alpha=c+\sum_{n=0}^\infty t_nz_n$$ with $$\max_{i}|t_nz_n(i)|\leq 2^{-n-2}\tag{1}$$ for each $n\in\omega.$ This ensures that $x_\alpha\in[0,1]^{\mathbb N}.$ Using absolute convergence to justify swapping sums, for all $n$ we have \begin{align*} \phi_{\beta(m)}(x_\alpha) &=\phi_{\beta(m)}(c)+\sum_{n=0}^{\infty} t_n\phi_{\beta(m)}(z_n)\\ &=\phi_{\beta(m)}(c)+\sum_{n=0}^{m} t_n\phi_{\beta(m)}(z_n).\tag{2} \end{align*} In the last equality, the $t_n$ terms have vanished for $n>m$ because then $\phi_{\beta(m)}(z_n)=0.$ The coefficient $\phi_{\beta(m)}(z_m)$ of $t_m$ is non-zero. So it's easy to construct $t_m$ by induction on $m$ satisfying (1) (with $n=m$) and such that (2) is rational iff $\beta(m)\neq \alpha.$ $\square$

Pick such an $x_\alpha$ for each $\alpha\in\omega_1\setminus\omega$ and take $X=\{x_\alpha:\alpha\in\omega_1\setminus\omega\}.$ It's uncountable because the $x_\alpha$ are distinct: $\phi_\beta(x_\alpha)\neq \phi_\beta(x_\beta)$ for $\beta<\alpha.$ All the projections by basis vectors are countable: $\phi_\beta[X]\subseteq\mathbb Q\cup \{\phi_\beta(x_\alpha):\alpha\in(\beta+1)\setminus\omega\}.$ We can write an arbitrary absolutely summable sequence as $a=\sum_{\beta} \lambda_\beta b_\beta$ with reals $\lambda_\beta,$ at most finitely many non-zero. The projection by $a$ is then contained in the countable set $\{\sum_{\beta:\lambda_\beta\neq 0}\lambda_\beta q_\beta : q\in \prod_{\beta:\lambda_\beta\neq 0}\phi_\beta[X]\}.$

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  • $\begingroup$ Your first part makes sense to me only if CH holds in this forcing extension (for uncountable does not mean of size continuum otherwise). But this would contradict the second part of your solution. Could you elaborate in more detail? $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 26 at 11:42
  • $\begingroup$ @BoazTsaban: ah, I had got uncountable/continuum sized mixed up when writing the first part. Is it clear now? I'm just observing that the argument from [1] can be applied with minor modifications $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 27 at 10:06
  • $\begingroup$ @ColinMcQuillan 1. Thanks, so at least now there is no clear contradiction. Could/do they have CH hold in the model of [1]? 2. Could you elaborate about the "linear algebra" claim at the beginning of the second part? I didn't see a clear connection to the link you provided. $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 27 at 12:38
  • $\begingroup$ @BoazTsaban: (1.) No, specifically the argument in [1] uses $\operatorname{cf}(\mathfrak c) > \omega_1.$ (2.) The claim is that the map $z\mapsto (\phi_{\beta(0)}(z),\phi_{\beta(1)}(z),\dots,\phi_{\beta(n)}(z))$ is surjective, so takes the value $(0,0,\dots,0,1)$ (say). $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 28 at 9:45
  • $\begingroup$ I think that I now understand the second part (the first would probably be more delicate). Very impressive reasoning! Thank you. $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 28 at 15:51

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