CHAIN CONDITIONS OF PRODUCTS, AND WEAKLY COMPACT CARDINALS

Abstract

AbstractThe history of productivity of theκ-chain condition in partial orders, topological spaces, or Boolean algebras is surveyed, and its connection to the set-theoretic notion of a weakly compact cardinal is highlighted. Then, it is proved that for every regular cardinal$\kappa > \aleph _1 {\rm{,}}$the principle □(k) is equivalent to the existence of a certain strong coloring$c\,:\,[k]^2 \, \to $kfor which the family of fibers${\cal T}\left( c \right)$is a nonspecialκ-Aronszajn tree.The theorem follows from an analysis of a new characteristic function for walks on ordinals, and implies in particular that if theκ-chain condition is productive for a given regular cardinal$\kappa > \aleph _1 {\rm{,}}$thenκis weakly compact in some inner model of ZFC. This provides a partial converse to the fact that ifκis a weakly compact cardinal, then theκ-chain condition is productive.