Related papers: The ultrafilter and almost disjointness numbers

The Erd\H{o}s-Straus conjecture, proposed in 1948 by Paul Erd\H{o}s and Ernst G. Straus, asks whether the Diophantine equation \[ \frac{4}{a} = \frac{1}{b} + \frac{1}{c} + \frac{1}{d} \] admits positive integer solutions $b, c, d \in…

We study some strong combinatorial properties of $\textsf{MAD}$ families. An ideal $\mathcal{I}$ is Shelah-Stepr\={a}ns if for every set $X\subseteq{\left[ \omega\right]}^{<\omega}$ there is an element of $\mathcal{I}$ that either…

This short note contains the proofs of two small but somewhat surprising results about ultrafilters on $\mathbb{N}$: 1. strongly summable ultrafilters are rapid, 2. every rapid ultrafilter induces a closed left ideal of rapid ultrafilters.…

A famous conjecture of Parkin-Shanks predicts that $p(n)$ is odd with density $1/2$. Despite the remarkable amount of work of the last several decades, however, even showing this density is positive seems out of reach. In a 2018 paper with…

In the study of strong homology Marde\v{s}i\'c and Prasolov isolated a certain inverse system of abelian groups $\mathbf A$ indexed by elements of $\omega^\omega$. They showed that if strong homology is additive on a class of spaces…

We continue here [She88] but we do not rely on it. The motivation was a conjecture of Galvin stating that 2^{omega} >= omega_2 + omega_2-> [omega_1]^{n}_{h(n)} is consistent for a suitable h: omega-> omega. In section 5 we disprove this and…

Let $ B_{\ell}(n)$ denote the number of $\ell$-regular bipartitions of $n.$ In this article, we prove that $ B_{\ell}(n)$ is always almost divisible by $p_i^j$ if $p_i^{2a_i}\geq \ell,$ where $j$ is a fixed positive integer and…

We introduce the notion of a coherent $P$-ultrafilter on a complete ccc Boolean algebra, strenghtening the notion of a $P$-point on $\omega$, and show that these ultrafilters exist generically under ${\mathfrak c} = {\mathfrak d}$. This…

It is proved to be consistent relative to a measurable cardinal that there is a uniform ultrafilter on the real numbers which is generated by fewer than the maximum possible number of sets. It is also shown to be consistent relative to a…

All ultrafilters under consideration here are non-principal ultrafilters on the set omega of natural numbers. We are concerned with the possible cofinalities of ultrapowers of omega with respect to such ultrafilters. We show that no…

The union-closed sets conjecture (sometimes referred to as Frankl's conjecture) states that every finite, nontrivial union-closed family of sets has an element that is in at least half of its members. Although the conjecture is known to be…

We introduce the decomposability spectrum $K_D=\{\lambda \geq \omega| D \text{is} \lambda\text{-decomposable}\}$ of an ultrafilter $D$, and show that Shelah's $\pcf$ theory influences the possible values $K_D$ can take. For example, we show…

We study the computational complexity of deciding whether a given set of term equalities and inequalities has a solution in an $\omega$-categorical algebra $\mathfrak{A}$. There are $\omega$-categorical groups where this problem is…

A family of sets is called union-closed if whenever $A$ and $B$ are sets of the family, so is $A\cup B$. The long-standing union-closed conjecture states that if a family of subsets of $[n]$ is union-closed, some element appears in at least…

In \cite{MV} we defined and proved the consistency of the principle ${\rm GM}^+(\omega_3,\omega_1)$ which implies that many consequences of strong forcing axioms hold simultaneously at $\omega_2$ and $\omega_3$. In this paper we formulate a…

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 give several topological/combinatorial conditions that, for a filter on $\omega$, are equivalent to being a non-meager $\mathsf{P}$-filter. In particular, we show that a filter is countable dense homogeneous if and only if it is a…

Brlek and Reutenauer conjectured that any infinite word u with language closed under reversal satisfies the equality 2D(u)=\sum_{n=0}^{\infty} T(n) in which D(u) denotes the defect of u and T(n) denotes C(n+1)-C(n)+2-P(n+1)-P(n), where C…

For any $\epsilon>0$ and $n>(1+\epsilon)t$, $n>n_0(\epsilon)$ we determine the size of the largest $t$-intersecting family of permutations, as well as give a sharp stability result. This resolves a conjecture of Ellis, Friedgut and Pilpel…

We show that the Hrushovski-\fraisse limit of certain classes of trees lead to strictly superstable theories of various U-ranks. In fact, for each $ \alpha\in\omega+1\backslash\{0\} $ we introduce a strictly superstable theory of U-rank $…