Maurey hierarchy of finite sets (${\mathcal{M}}_{\alpha }$)

This hierarchy measures the complexity of successive finite selections. Start with ${\mathcal{M}}_0=\{\varnothing \}$. At a successor stage, retain the previous family and allow one smaller integer to be prepended. At a countable limit $\lambda$, choose positive ordinals ${\lambda }_j\uparrow \lambda$ and admit sets in ${\mathcal{M}}_{{\lambda }_j}$ whose minimum is at least $j$. Each family is hereditary and spreading, has no infinite branch, and its extension-tree rank on every infinite subset is at least $\alpha$. These properties make the hierarchy useful for transfinite constructions of unconditional basic sequences.