Baire property in the Ellentuck topology 2026-10-07
A subset of the space of infinite subsets of the natural numbers has this property when it differs from an Ellentuck topology open set by a meagre set in the same topology. By the complete-Ramsey characterization, these are precisely the completely Ramsey sets. Using meagreness from a different topology changes the definition.
Comeagre set 2026-10-06
The complement of a comeagre set is a meagre set, a countable union of nowhere dense sets. A dense G-delta set is comeagre. The Baire category theorem ensures that two comeagre subsets of a nonempty complete metric space cannot be disjoint.
Generic nowhere-monotone continuous function Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
In with the uniform norm, the continuous functions that are monotone on some interval of positive length form a meagre set. Indeed, it is enough to use intervals with rational endpoints. For each such interval, the nondecreasing and nonincreasing functions form closed sets with empty interior: a sufficiently small local triangular perturbation breaks the relevant inequality. The Baire category theorem therefore shows that a dense set of continuous functions is monotone on no nontrivial interval.
Generic superfactorial derivative growth at rational points Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Outside a meagre set in , every rational and every positive integer admit such thatFor fixed , the union over of these strict-inequality sets is open. It is dense because a perturbation can make the th derivative arbitrarily large while keeping any prescribed finite collection of lower derivatives arbitrarily small. The Baire category theorem applied over the countable pairs gives the claim.
Lusin set 2026-10-06
A Lusin set is an uncountable subset of the real numbers such that is countable for every meagre set . Every meagre subset has a meagre cover, so testing those covers suffices. The Lusin set construction under CH gives an example. A Lusin set has no uncountable meagre subset of itself.
Lusin set construction under CH 2026-10-06
Under the Continuum hypothesis, enumerate the meagre covers by . At stage choose a new real outside all earlier covers and the previous choices. The excluded union is meagre, so the Baire category theorem makes the choice possible. Each cover then contains only countably many selected points. Arbitrary meagre sets need not themselves have only continuum many possible choices; the coded covers are what is enumerated.
Luzin set 2026-10-06
An uncountable subset of the real numbers with countable intersection with every meagre set. This is the category counterpart of a Sierpiński set.
Meagreness of the Ramsey cone topology 2026-10-07
The whole space of infinite subsets of the natural numbers is a meagre set in the Ramsey cone topology. For , the closure is , which has empty interior: every infinite ground set can be thinned to omit . Thus all are nowhere dense, while their countable union is the whole space. In contrast, the whole space is not meagre in either the Ellentuck topology or the ordinary topology on infinite subsets.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 10 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Write for the space of infinite subsets of the natural numbers, identifying a set with its increasing enumeration. If is finite and is infinite with every element of above , setFor the empty stem there is no lower-bound restriction. These sets form the basis of the Ellentuck topology, also called the star topology. The stem is fixed, while the infinite tail may be thinned.
A completely Ramsey set is one for which every admits an infinite with or . This keeps the same stem. A Ramsey set of infinite subsets requires that every infinite admit an infinite with a homogeneous empty-stem cone . It does not require preserving a nonempty finite stem.
A set is a star-Baire set if it differs from a star-open set by a star-meagre set, equivalently is star-meagre for some star-open . A nowhere dense set has closure with empty interior, and a meagre set is a countable union of such sets, with both notions interpreted in the specified topology.
For a non-Ramsey example, put and well-order all infinite subsets of as , where . Recursively choose two fresh points , not used at earlier stages. This is possible because each cone has cardinality and fewer than points have been used before any stage. Letkeeping all the outside . Every infinite-subset cone on meets both and its complement. Thus is not Ramsey, even when regarded as a subset of : any infinite set can first be thinned to avoid . This uses the axiom of choice, rather than claiming a Borel counterexample.
Now setEvery infinite has an infinite subset avoiding , and then . Hence is Ramsey. But no stem-preserving thinning of is homogeneous for , because splits every tail cone. Hence is not completely Ramsey.
To prove the topological equivalence, we first establish the Ellentuck meagre-set fusion lemma: every star-meagre set can be avoided in a refinement with the original stem. Call a set completely Ramsey-null if this avoidance holds in every .
If is star-nowhere dense, then is star-open and dense. By the granted complete-Ramsey property of star-open sets, every has a refinement either contained in or disjoint from . The latter alternative would put a nonempty open set inside , contradicting density of . Thus is completely Ramsey-null.
For a countable union of completely Ramsey-null sets, use fusion, taking care of every possible finite stem. Starting with , at stage choose above all previous choices. From the part of above , successively thin an infinite tail for each of the finitely many subsets so thatEach thinning keeps the stem fixed; subsequent thinnings preserve earlier avoidance. Let . For any and fixed , put . The rest of lies in , because all later selected points do. Therefore and . Since was arbitrary,This proves the fusion lemma. Considering all subsets , not merely the single selected prefix, is essential: elements of need not use every .
Suppose first that is star-Baire, with star-meagre and star-open. Thin to avoiding the meagre difference by the lemma. Then apply the granted complete-Ramsey property of to find homogeneous for , with . On this refinement and agree, so it is homogeneous for . Thus is completely Ramsey.
Conversely, let be completely Ramsey and let be the union of all basic neighborhoods wholly contained in , namely its star-interior. Every has a homogeneous refinement. If that refinement lies in , it lies in ; if it avoids , it also avoids . Consequently every basic neighborhood contains a nonempty open refinement disjoint from . Since such a refinement is also disjoint from the closure of , this difference is star-nowhere dense. Thus is star-meagre, and is star-Baire. We have provedFinally, is not star-meagre: otherwise apply the fusion lemma to its purported meagre cover inside any nonempty basic neighborhood, obtaining a nonempty disjoint from , a contradiction.
The printed paper does not define . In the coarser Ramsey cone topology, whose basic open sets are without finite stems, is -meagre. To prove this, let . Its cone-topology closure is : every cone neighborhood of a point containing has a subset with least element , whereas if the neighborhood avoids . No nonempty cone lies in , since its infinite ground set can be thinned to remove . Therefore each is nowhere dense, but . This proves meagreness of the Ramsey cone topology and exhibits the contrast with the star topology.
If instead denotes the ordinary topology on infinite subsets, with basic cylinders , the answer is not -meagre. Indeed, given countably many nowhere dense sets, extend a finite increasing prefix successively so that its cylinder avoids the closure of the next set. Make the prefix longer at each step. Their union is an infinite increasing enumeration belonging to every chosen cylinder and avoiding the whole proposed cover. The same construction starts inside any nonempty cylinder, so this alternative product topology is also a Baire space. The two conventions have different answers, so the distinction must be made explicitly rather than inferred from the symbol alone.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 121 2 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Every meagre set is contained in a meagre set: replace each nowhere dense set in a countable covering by its closure. There are at most such covers, since each closed subset of is determined by a countable rational basis for its open complement, and a countable sequence of such codes is again coded by a real. Under the Continuum hypothesis, enumerate all meagre sets as , allowing repetitions.
By transfinite recursion, chooseFor each , the excluded union is a meagre set: it is a countable union of meagre sets and singletons. The Baire category theorem ensures that it does not cover , so the choice is possible. The resulting is uncountable. If is meagre, choose with . Every with avoids , hencewhich is countable. Thus has precisely the Lusin set property. Enumerating covers rather than all meagre sets avoids an unjustified claim that there are only continuum many arbitrary meagre subsets.