Wiki
Wiki

Research notes on every problem, and a library of the papers behind them. Built from the open erdos repository.

Updated


Claim. Baumgartner's theorem (§3 of the chapter, as its zbMATH review reports it) states that Martin's axiom for ℵ1\aleph_1 dense sets, MAℵ1\mathrm{MA}_{\aleph_1}, makes ω1ω\omega_1\omega a partition ordinal: for every finite nn,

ω1ω→(ω1ω,n)2.\omega_1\omega\to(\omega_1\omega,n)^2 .

The second question of Problem 597 follows in every model of MAℵ1\mathrm{MA}_{\aleph_1}. A finite graph GG on nn vertices is a subgraph of KnK_n, so a set of nn vertices with all its pairs in the second color contains a copy of GG; and ω1ω\omega_1\omega is an initial segment of ω12\omega_1^2, so restricting a coloring of [ω12]2[\omega_1^2]^2 to [ω1ω]2[\omega_1\omega]^2 transfers the relation. Hence, under MAℵ1\mathrm{MA}_{\aleph_1},

ω12→(ω1ω,G)2\omega_1^2\to(\omega_1\omega,G)^2

for every finite GG, whether or not GG is K4K_4-free. Since MAℵ1\mathrm{MA}_{\aleph_1} is consistent relative to ZFC (Solovay and Tennenbaum, Ann. of Math. 94, 1971), the relation for every finite GG holds in a model of ZFC, and ZFC does not refute the finite question. The two steps from the theorem to the relation are author-recorded on the result page of the source card, not independently reviewed.

Covers. The second question, the relation for finite GG: ZFC does not refute a positive answer. It says nothing about the first question, the infinite targets, since the theorem is stated for finite nn only, and nothing about the finite question in ZFC, where the triangle case is the theorem of Erdős and Hajnal and every larger case is open. The hypothesis cannot simply be dropped: the continuum hypothesis gives ω1ω↛(ω1ω,3)2\omega_1\omega\not\to(\omega_1\omega,3)^2 (Erdős and Hajnal, as the chapter's review records), although ω12→(ω1ω,3)2\omega_1^2\to(\omega_1\omega,3)^2 is a theorem of ZFC, so a negative relation on ω1ω\omega_1\omega does not pass to ω12\omega_1^2.

Source. James E. Baumgartner, Remarks on partition ordinals, in Set theory and its applications (Toronto, ON, 1987), Lecture Notes in Mathematics 1401, Springer, Berlin, 1989, pp. 5–17, doi:10.1007/BFb0097328, Zbl 0703.03027, MR 1031762. The chapter is paywalled and not held; its statement is taken from the zbMATH review and from the restatement in the introduction of Chen, Garti and Weinert, as the source card records, and the chapter's theorem numbering is unknown. The volume carries only the year, so this page is dated the first of January 1989.

Acceptance. None, so the claim stays claimed. The site labels Problem 597 OPEN and its commentary does not mention the theorem; the chapter appeared in a Springer Lecture Notes in Mathematics proceedings volume, and there is no evidence that the volume's chapters were refereed, so refereed is not listed; and the same chapter is accepted on Problem 1171's page only through that problem's own NOT DISPROVABLE label, whose credit to Baumgartner covers the case n=3n=3 alone and says nothing about Problem 597.

Depends on. The main theorem page of the source card, a library result page, which states the theorem and the restriction step.