Every set of reals is continuum-Suslin Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-11-05
Assume the axiom of choice, and let . Every such is -Suslin. To see this, use the elements of Baire space of sequences as labels. For each , put the node
of length into a tree, including its prefixes. The label sequence repeats the same entire real at every position. An infinite branch therefore projects to that particular , rather than merely to a limit of elements of . The projection is exactly .
A bijection between the label set and a cardinal of size converts this into the usual Kappa-Suslin set representation. The well-ordering of the labels uses choice; without it, the real-labelled tree is still available but an ordinal-sized relabelling needs a separate hypothesis.
Use one label for each member of . More explicitly, set
An infinite branch through this tree has a constant first coordinate and second coordinate , so . Thus is -Suslin. Since injects into a set of cardinality , part i makes a -Suslin set. This proves that Every set of reals is continuum-Suslin.
Successor-Suslin decomposition Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-11-05
In ZFC, if is an infinite cardinal number, every -Suslin set is a union of many Kappa-Suslin sets. Let a tree on represent the set. Each branch uses only countably many ordinal labels, so its labels are bounded below , since the successor cardinal is regular in ZFC.
For each restrict to labels below . Since , its projection is a Kappa-Suslin set; taking their union recovers the original projection. The boundedness step requires . It must not be used without a suitable choice or cofinality assumption in settings involving the axiom of determinacy.