We explore a general method based on trees of elementary submodels in order to present highly simplified proofs to numerous results in infinite combinatorics. While countable elementary submodels have been employed in such settings already, we significantly broaden this framework by developing the corresponding technique for countably closed models of size continuum. The applications range from various theorems on paradoxical decompositions of the plane, to coloring sparse set systems, results on graph chromatic number and constructions from point-set topology. Our main purpose is to demonstrate the ease and wide applicability of this method in a form accessible to anyone with a basic background in set theory and logic.

This note provides a correct proof of the result claimed by the second author that locally compact normal spaces are collectionwise Hausdorff in certain models obtained by forcing with a coherent Souslin tree. A novel feature of the proof is the use of saturation of the non-stationary ideal on ${{\omega }_{1}}$, as well as of a strong form of Chang's Conjecture. Together with other improvements, this enables the consistent characterization of locally compact hereditarily paracompact spaces as those locally compact, hereditarily normal spaces that do not include a copy of ${{\omega }_{1}}$.

Let A = C(X) ⊗ K(H), where X is a compact Hausdorff space and K(H) is the algebra of compact operators on a separable infinite-dimensional Hilbert space. Let A s be the algebra of strong*-continuous functions from X to K(H). Then A s /A is the inner corona algebra of A. We show that if X has no isolated points, then A s /A is an essential ideal of the corona algebra of A, and Prim(A s /A), the primitive ideal space of A s /A, is not weakly Lindelof. If X is also first countable, then there is a natural injection from the power set of X to the lattice of closed ideals of A s /A. If X = βℕ\ℕ and the continuum hypothesis (CH) is assumed, then the corona algebra of A is a proper subalgebra of the multiplier algebra of A s /A. Several of the results are obtained in the more general setting of C 0(X)-algebras.

Extending the work of Larson and Todorcevic, we show that there is a model of set theory in which normal spaces are collectionwise Hausdorff if they are either first countable or locally compact, and yet there are no first countable $L$-spaces or compact $S$-spaces. The model is one of the form $\text{PFA}\left( S \right)\left[ S \right]$, where $S$ is a coherent Souslin tree.

We extend the scope of B. Shapirovskii's results on the order of $\pi $-bases in compact spaces and answer some questions of V. Tkachuk.

To each filter ℱ on ω, a certain linear subalgebra A(ℱ) of Rω, the countable product of lines, is assigned. This algebra is shown to have many interesting topological properties, depending on the properties of the filter ℱ. For example, if ℱ is a free ultrafilter, then A(ℱ) is a Baire subalgebra of ℱω for which the game OF introduced by Tkachenko is undetermined (this resolves a problem of Hernández, Robbie and Tkachenko); and if ℱ1 and ℱ2 are two free filters on ω that are not near coherent (such filters exist under Martin's Axiom), then A (ℱ1) and A(ℱ2) are two o-bounded and OF-undetermined subalgebras of ℱω whose product A(ℱ1) × A(ℱ2) is OF-determined and not o-bounded (this resolves a problem of Tkachenko). It is also shown that the statement that the product of two o-bounded subrings of ℱω is o-bounded is equivalent to the set-theoretic principle NCF (Near Coherence of Filters); this suggests that Tkachenko's question on the productivity of the class of o-bounded topological groups may be undecidable in ZFC.

A $Q$-set is a set of reals every subset of which is a relative ${{G}_{\delta }}$. We investigate the combinatorics of $Q$-sets and discuss a question of Miller and Zhou on the size $q$ of the smallest set of reals which is not a $Q$-set. We show in particular that various natural lower bounds for $q$ are consistently strictly smaller than $q$.

We construct, under MAcountable, a countably compact topological subsemigroup of which is not a group, hence a counterexample for the Wallace problem. We also show that there is no p-compact counterexample for the Wallace problem, answering a question of D. Grant. Finally, we show that—in some sense—our counterexample for the Wallace problem constructed under MAcountable cannot be done in ZFC.

In the mid 1970's, Shelah formulated a weak version of ◊. This axiom Φ is a prediction principle for colorings of the binary tree of height ω1. Shelah and Devlin showed that Φ is equivalent to 2ℵ0 < 2ℵ1.

In this paper, we formulate Φp, a "Φ for partial colorings", show that both ◊* and Fleissner's “◊ for stationary systems” imply Φp, that ◊ does not imply Φp and that Φp does not imply CH.

We show that Φp implies that, in a normal first countable space, a discrete family of points of cardinality ℵ1 is separated.