Related papers: Definability and almost disjoint families

We show that if all collections of infinite subsets of $\N$ have the Ramsey property, then there are no infinite maximal almost disjoint (mad) families. This solves a long-standing problem going back to Mathias \cite{mathias}. The proof…

We provide a proof that analytic almost disjoint families of infinite sets of integers cannot be maximal using a result of Bourgain about compact sets of Baire class one functions. Inspired by this and related ideas, we then provide a new…

Given a family $F$ of pairwise almost disjoint sets on a countable set $S$, we study maximal almost disjoint (mad) families $F^+$ extending $F$. We define $a^+(F)$ to be the minimal possible cardinality of $F^+\setminus F$ for such $F^+$,…

We prove that under a principle of Ramsey regularity there are no infinite maximal almost disjoint families with respect to the transfinitely iterated Fr\'echet ideals. The results of the present paper were announced by the authors in the…

Let $E$ be a vector space over a countable field of dimension $\aleph_0$. Two infinite-dimensional subspaces $V,W \subseteq E$ are almost disjoint if $V \cap W$ is finite-dimensional. This paper provides some improvements on results about…

We study two different types of (maximal) almost disjoint families: very mad families and (maximal) cofinitary groups. For the very mad families we prove the basic existence results. We prove that MA implies there exist many pairwise…

We prove in ZFC that there is a MAD family of functions in omega^omega which is also maximal with respect to infinite partial functions. This solves a 20 year old question of Van Douwen. We also strengthen a result of J. Steprans stating…

We throw some light on the question: is there a MAD family (= a family of infinite subsets of N, the intersection of any two is finite) which is completely separable (i.e. any X subseteq N is included in a finite union of members of the…

We study the notion of $\mathcal J$-MAD families where $\mathcal J$ is a Borel ideal on $\omega$. We show that if $\mathcal J$ is an arbitrary $F_\sigma$ ideal, or is any finite or countably iterated Fubini product of $F_\sigma$ ideals,…

We prove that if there is a dominating family of size ${\aleph}_{1}$, then there is are ${\aleph}_{1}$ many compact subsets of ${\omega}^{\omega}$ whose union is a maximal almost disjoint family of functions that is also maximal with…

Assuming the existence of a supercompact cardinal, we construct a model where, for some uncountable regular cardinal $\kappa$, there are no $\Sigma^1_1(\kappa)-\kappa-$mad families.

We show that all maximal almost disjoint families have pseudocompact Vietoris hyperspace if and only if $\mathsf{MA}_\mathfrak c (\mathcal P(\omega)/\mathrm{fin})$ holds. We further study the question whether there is a maximal almost…

We answer Question~3.2 from Shelah \cite{Sh:666}: Given a maximal almost disjoint (mad) family $\mathcal A$ of size $\aleph_1$, we construct a forcing ${\mathbb Q}(\mathcal A)$ that has Axiom A, is ${}^\omega \omega$-bounding, preserves…

We consider the definability of mad families in vector spaces of the form $\underset{n<\omega}{\bigoplus} F$ where $F$ is a field of cardinality $\leq \aleph_0$. We show that there is no analytic mad family of subspaces when…

We survey results regarding the definability and size of maximal discrete sets in analytic hypergraphs. Our main examples include maximal almost disjoint (or mad) families, $\mathcal I$-mad families, maximal eventually different families,…

Using ideas from Shelah's recent proof that a completely separable maximal almost disjoint family exists when $\c < {\aleph}_{\omega}$, we construct a weakly tight family under the hypothesis $\s \leq \b < {\aleph}_{\omega}$. The case when…

Generalizing the notion of a tight almost disjoint family, we introduce the notions of a {\em tight eventually different} family of functions in Baire space and a {\em tight eventually different set of permutations} of $\omega$. Such sets…

We introduce a new class of almost disjoint families which we call fin-intersecting almost disjoint families. They are related to almost disjoint families whose Vietoris Hyperspace of their Isbell-Mr\'owka spaces are pseudocompact. We show…

We show that under $\mathsf{ZF} + \mathsf{CC}_{\mathbb R}$, if the Ramsey property holds for all sets in a good pointclass $\Gamma$, then there is no MAD family in $\Gamma$, proving a long-standing conjecture made by A.R.D.\ Mathias in…

In this paper, we study the following classical question of extremal set theory: what is the maximum size of a family of subsets of $[n]$ such that no $s$ sets from the family are pairwise disjoint? This problem was first posed by Erd\H os…