Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 19 4 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Use the standard normal set-theoretic tree convention: a unique root, extensions at every higher level, splitting into at least two successors, and tree with unique limits. The small-level and height assumptions already give an -tree, while the given tree antichain condition gives the countable chain condition for forcing. We only need to exclude an uncountable branch.
If such a branch existed, its heights would be unbounded, since each initial segment contains only countably many nodes. Fill in predecessors to obtain its node at every level. At each successor step choose a successor of different from . For , the node extends the branch successor , and so is incompatible with . Thus is an uncountable tree antichain, a contradiction.
Therefore the set-theoretic tree is -Suslin. The splitting part of normality matters: a single chain in a partial order of height would satisfy the tree antichain condition but not the conclusion if one used a weakened definition of normality allowing no splitting.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 24 3 c ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Start with the set-theoretic tree of initial characteristic functionsordered by extension. The Kurepa-family hypothesis makes each level countable, because its members are in one-to-one correspondence with the distinct traces . Every node extends to every higher level using an that witnesses it. Nodes at limit levels are uniquely determined by their predecessors, and the distinct give distinct cofinal branches.
We can also ensure the splitting requirement in the definition of a normal set-theoretic tree. Keep only nodes through which of these branches pass. There are nodes in total. For a discarded node, at most of the selected branches pass through it, so at most branches meet any discarded node. Remove those branches; branches remain, and each retained node still has remaining branches through it. It therefore has two different retained extensions at some later level, and has a retained extension at every higher level.
Choose increasing countable levels , starting at , continuously at limits, so that all nodes at level split before level . This is possible because each selected level is countable. Restrict to these levels and relabel them by . The retained tree now has one root, extensions at every higher level, at least two immediate successors, and unique limits of predecessor chains. Distinct remaining branches stay distinct on this unbounded set of levels. Hence the resulting normal set-theoretic tree is a Kurepa tree, with