Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2018 / iii / Paper 130 / 3 / iii

Let $E={\bigcup }_{j\ge 1}{B}_{2j}$. For every even index $2j$, $B_{2j}\subseteq E$ and $B_{2j}\in U_{2j}$ imply $E\in U_{2j}$. For every odd index $2j-1$, disjointness gives $B_{2j-1}\subseteq E^c$, so $E^c\in U_{2j-1}$ and $E\notin U_{2j-1}$. ConsequentlyThe limit ultrafilter $U$ contains either $E$ or $E^c$. Whichever it contains, the corresponding basic clopen set $\hat{E}$ or $\widehat{E^c}$ is a neighbourhood of $U$, but infinitely many sequence terms lie outside it. This contradicts convergence. Therefore pairwise distinct ultrafilters cannot form a convergent sequence in $\beta \mathbb{N}$, the key step in no nontrivial convergent sequences in the Stone-Čech compactification.