Baire property in the Ellentuck topology Created 2026-10-07 Updated 2026-10-14
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.
For an infinite coinfinite set , let in the space of infinite subsets of the natural numbers. This cone is a nonempty clopen set in the Ellentuck topology, because it is the basic neighbourhood , and any has a finite initial segment containing a point outside and hence a basic neighbourhood disjoint from .
The cone is a closed set with empty interior in the ordinary topology on infinite subsets: membership of a point outside witnesses its complement as an open set, while every ordinary finite-stem neighbourhood can be extended by an arbitrarily large point outside . Thus is an ordinary nowhere dense set, but it is neither ordinary open nor Ellentuck nowhere dense. It provides both distinctions between these two topologies.
In the space of infinite subsets of the natural numbers, the families are clopen sets in the ordinary topology on infinite subsets and thus in the finer Ellentuck topology. Their union is . Every basic Ellentuck topology neighborhood of contains for some sufficiently large , so this union is not a closed set.
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.
Identify with the space of infinite subsets of the natural numbers. A family has an infinite homogeneous set for a colouring if some infinite satisfies
This is the Ramsey family in the homogeneous-cone sense formulation. The relative Ramsey set of infinite subsets formulation asks for such an inside every prescribed infinite ground set. We prove the stronger completely Ramsey assertion, keeping an arbitrary finite stem fixed.
For a finite stem and an infinite tail with (taking ), write
These neighbourhoods generate the Ellentuck topology, or star topology. A star-Borel set belongs to the sigma-algebra generated by the open sets of this topology. It is completely Ramsey if every has an infinite with or . Taking gives both preceding Ramsey formulations.
We first prove the fusion proof for open Ellentuck sets. Fix a star-open set and a starting neighbourhood . A reservoir above a finite extension accepts when . It rejects when no infinite subreservoir accepts it. Every infinite reservoir has a refinement deciding : if an accepting subreservoir exists choose one, and otherwise the reservoir already rejects. Both acceptance and rejection persist under further infinite thinning. These are acceptance and rejection of finite stems.
First refine to decide the empty extension. Choose from the refined reservoir and thin the remaining tail to decide every subset of . After choosing , thin the unused infinite tail to decide every subset of this finite prefix before choosing . Only finitely many decisions occur at each stage. Let . For each finite , its tail
(with ) is contained in the reservoir chosen when the largest point of was selected. Thus decides . This is deciding all finite stems by fusion.
If accepts the empty extension, and we are done. Otherwise it rejects it. Call a finite accepted or rejected according to the decision of . For each rejected , the set
is finite. Indeed, if were infinite, every would have a least element with accepted, and its remaining tail lies in . Hence for every such , making an accepting subreservoir for , a contradiction. This proves the finitely many accepting extensions of a rejected stem fact.
Build by choosing each new point outside all the finitely many sets for subsets of the already selected prefix. Begin with the rejected empty extension. Inductively every finite subset of the new prefix is rejected: the old subsets stay rejected, and each new subset is a rejected extended by a point outside , whose decision must therefore be rejection. Consequently every finite is rejected.
If a point belonged to , star-openness would give a basic neighbourhood containing it. Extend along the increasing enumeration of , if necessary, until its stem is for a finite . The infinite tail of above that stem then provides an accepting subreservoir for , contradicting rejection. Therefore . We have proved that every star-open set is completely Ramsey.
A family is completely Ramsey-null when every has a stem-preserving refinement disjoint from . Every star-nowhere dense set has this property. Apply the open-set result to the dense open complement of its star-closure. The disjoint alternative would put an entire basic neighbourhood inside a closure with empty interior, which is impossible. The other alternative gives the required avoidance.
We also need the full Ellentuck meagre-set fusion lemma, not a diagonal argument checking only one prefix. Let be completely Ramsey-null, and start inside . At stage , suppose have been chosen. Refine the remaining infinite tail successively so that
The null property permits each refinement with its stem unchanged; previous avoidance survives thinning. There are finitely many at this stage. Choose and continue above it. Let .
For any infinite and any fixed , put . Its remaining points form an infinite subset of , so and hence . This works for every , proving
Thus countable unions of completely Ramsey-null sets are null. Subsets of null sets are null as well. In particular every star-meagre set, being a countable union of star-nowhere-dense sets, is completely Ramsey-null.
Finally let consist of families such that is contained in a star-meagre set for some star-open . This is the Baire property in the Ellentuck topology. We verify that it forms a sigma-algebra. Open sets belong with empty error. For a countable union, use ; its error is contained in the countable union of the meagre errors. For complements, replace by its interior. The discrepancy is
a closed nowhere-dense set: every open set meeting also meets , so none can lie wholly in this boundary. Adding it to the original meagre error handles complementation. Consequently every star-Borel set belongs to .
For such an , start with any . First apply null avoidance to its meagre error to find on which agrees with . Then apply open-set homogeneity to refine it to wholly inside or outside , and therefore wholly inside or outside . This is the Baire-property reduction for completely Ramsey families. We conclude
All closures, interiors, openness and meagreness in this argument refer to the star topology; replacing it midway by the ordinary finite-prefix topology would not justify the null-avoidance step.
Write for the space of infinite subsets of the natural numbers, with each subset identified with its increasing enumeration. In the homogeneous-cone convention, a family is a Ramsey family in the homogeneous-cone sense when some infinite satisfies
The stronger Ramsey set of infinite subsets convention asks for such an infinite inside every given infinite ground set . We will prove the open-set assertion in this stronger form, and our Ramsey-but-not-completely-Ramsey example will satisfy it as well. Thus the distinction in conventions does not affect any of the conclusions below.
For a non-Ramsey example, declare if their symmetric difference is finite, and choose a representative from each equivalence class using the axiom of choice. Set
for the representative of the class of . Removing one point reverses this colour, because its symmetric difference with changes by exactly one point. Consequently every cone contains the oppositely coloured sets and . Either colour class of this finite-symmetric-difference parity colouring is not a Ramsey family in the homogeneous-cone sense. No definability is claimed for the representative selection.
The ordinary topology on infinite subsets, denoted , has basic cylinders , where is a finite stem of the increasing enumeration. Let be a -open family and fix an arbitrary infinite ground set . We give a complete fusion proof of a homogeneous cone inside .
Use the convention . For finite and an infinite reservoir above , say that accepts if , where
Say that rejects if no infinite subset of accepts . There is always a refinement deciding : choose an accepting subreservoir if one exists, and otherwise retain , which rejects. Both decisions persist under further thinning.
A first fusion produces an infinite deciding every finite on its tail . First decide the empty stem. Choose the first point, and thin the remaining reservoir successively to decide every subset of the selected prefix. Repeat after choosing each new point. There are finitely many subsets to decide at each stage. The diagonal sequence of chosen points has the required property, since its tail after the largest point of any stem lies in the reservoir where that stem was decided. The empty-stem decision persists too. This is deciding all finite stems by fusion.
If accepts the empty stem, and we are done. Suppose it rejects. For a rejected finite , only finitely many can have accepting . Otherwise let be their infinite set. Every infinite starts with some such , and its remaining tail lies in , so . Then accepts , contradicting rejection. This proves finitely many accepting extensions of a rejected stem.
A second fusion constructs whose every finite subset is rejected. If a finite prefix of chosen points has been selected, all its subsets are rejected by induction. Avoid the union of their finitely many accepting successor sets when choosing the next point. The first fusion already decides every successor, so every new subset is rejected. An infinite reservoir remains after each finite exclusion.
If some belonged to , openness would give an initial segment with . Its reservoir would then accept , contradicting the second fusion. Therefore . In either case we have a homogeneous cone inside the arbitrary ground set . Every -open family is a Ramsey set of infinite subsets, under both conventions.
A completely Ramsey set requires more: for every finite and infinite reservoir above , there is an infinite such that
The finite stem must be kept fixed. These are the basic neighbourhoods of the Ellentuck topology, also called the star topology.
Let be the even positive integers, and construct the finite-symmetric-difference parity colouring on . Define
For any infinite ground set , the set is still infinite and its whole cone misses . Thus is a Ramsey set of infinite subsets even in the stronger convention. But inside , every infinite refinement gives the two sets and of opposite colours. Hence no such refinement is homogeneous. The family is Ramsey but not completely Ramsey. The stem-supported Ramsey family need not be completely Ramsey construction explains this example: forgetting the stem is precisely what loses the obstruction.
Finally take . It is nonempty and star-open, since it equals . It is -closed: if an infinite set contains an odd integer, an initial segment witnessing that integer has a cylinder disjoint from . Its -interior is empty: after any finite stem of even integers, append an arbitrarily large odd integer and then infinitely many further points. Thus
This is the cone on an infinite coinfinite ground set. Choose its subset . Since , is also -nowhere dense. Nevertheless every with infinite contains both and , of opposite colours. Hence is not completely Ramsey. We have proved explicitly that ordinarily nowhere-dense sets need not be completely Ramsey; the topology in the nowhere-dense hypothesis cannot be silently changed to the star topology.
Identify the space of infinite subsets of the natural numbers with their increasing enumerations, with the ordinary topology on infinite subsets inherited from the discrete product . This is the sequence convention in the Open Ramsey theorem. For a general infinite ground set, first choose a countably infinite subset and use its enumeration. The theorem cannot mean unrestricted sequences with repetitions: the clopen partition according as the first two entries agree or differ has both colours over every infinite ground set.
For a finite finite stem and an infinite tail above , write
where the enumeration of precedes the tail. Let be open. The tail accepts if ; it rejects if no infinite subtail accepts it. Both properties persist on infinite subtails, and any stem can be decided by thinning: choose an accepting subtail if one exists; otherwise the current tail already rejects it.
Use deciding all finite stems by fusion. At stage , choose a new element from the current tail, then thin the remaining tail to decide each of the finitely many subsets of . First decide the empty stem as well. The final selected set decides every finite stem from , because all subsequent selections lie in the tail that decided that stem. If accepts the empty stem, and we are done.
Otherwise the empty stem is rejected. If a stem is rejected, only finitely many above can have the tail accepting . Indeed, if infinitely many such formed , then every starts with one of them and has its remaining tail in . It follows that , contradicting rejection of . All other one-point extensions are rejected, since the first fusion has already decided them.
Build an infinite recursively. Maintain that every subset of the finite selected prefix is rejected. To select its next element, avoid the finite union of the finitely many accepting-extension obstructions for these rejected stems. Such an element exists, and all the new stems remain rejected. Hence every finite stem from is rejected. If some were in , openness would supply a finite initial segment of whose entire ordinary cylinder is contained in . The tail would accept , a contradiction. Thus
In particular every open payoff has an infinite homogeneous set. A finite partition into open colour classes can be handled by successive application of this two-colour assertion.
For an arbitrary partition use finite-symmetric-difference parity colouring. On the infinite subsets of the ground set, declare when is finite, and choose a representative from each equivalence class. Colour by
For any infinite , removing one member gives an infinite in the same class and reverses the parity. Thus and have opposite colours, so neither colour contains all infinite subsets of any infinite ground set. This two-colouring has no infinite homogeneous set. Representative selection uses choice; the construction is deliberately unrestricted by topological regularity.
Write for the space of infinite subsets of the natural numbers, and for all infinite subsets of an infinite . A family is a Ramsey set of infinite subsets if for every infinite there is an infinite with either or .
A non-Ramsey set of infinite subsets is obtained by finite-symmetric-difference parity colouring. Declare when their symmetric difference is finite, and use the axiom of choice to select a representative for each equivalence class. Put
For every infinite , both and belong to and have the same representative. Toggling one element changes the parity of the finite symmetric difference, so these two sets have opposite colors. Thus no is homogeneous, and is not a Ramsey set of infinite subsets. Only finite differences are counted; no parity is being assigned to an infinite cardinal.
We use the Ellentuck topology for the star notation. Its basic neighborhoods are
where is a finite stem (the initial segment of each member of the neighborhood) and every element of the infinite reservoir exceeds ; the empty stem is allowed. A star-nowhere dense set has star-closure with empty star-interior; a star-meagre set is a countable union of star-nowhere dense sets.
We need the following stem-preserving open-set conclusion: a star-open set has, in every , an infinite such that or . Here is the fusion proof for open Ellentuck sets, so that the precise form being used is explicit. A reservoir accepts a finite extension of when , and rejects it when no infinite subreservoir accepts it. Every reservoir can be thinned to decide a prescribed stem: take an accepting subreservoir if one exists, and otherwise it already rejects. Acceptance and rejection are hereditary under further infinite thinning.
First thin to decide . If it accepts, we have finished. Otherwise, choose successive points , thinning the unused tail after each selection to decide every stem with a subset of the finitely many points already selected. Each stage requires only finitely many decisions. The final set therefore decides every such finite extension, using the tail above its largest point. It rejects .
For any rejected stem , only finitely many possible next points of have accepting tails for . Otherwise collect infinitely many such points into . Every member of starts with some such , and its remaining points lie in the accepting tail above . Hence , contradicting rejection. A second selection now gives all of whose finite extensions of are rejected: at each stage avoid the finitely many forbidden next points for each subset of the chosen prefix. Previous rejections persist on thinning. If , star-openness gives an initial stem of and an infinite tail of whose entire neighborhood lies in . This is an accepting subreservoir for a stem we made rejected, a contradiction. Thus , proving the needed open-set conclusion.
Apply this conclusion to when is star-nowhere dense. This is star-open and star-dense. The alternative would give a nonempty star-open set inside , contradicting empty interior. Consequently every star-nowhere dense set can be avoided without extending the finite stem.
Now let , each star-nowhere dense, and fix . Construct with nested infinite unused reservoirs. At stage , let . For every , in turn, thin the current reservoir using the preceding avoidance property until
There are only finitely many such , and subsequent thinning preserves all previous avoidances. Choose and retain the part of above for the next stage. Put . For any and any , the finite part is one of the stems tested at stage , and the rest of lies in . Hence and . This proves .
The final is star-open and disjoint from , so it is also disjoint from the star-closure of . Every basic neighborhood therefore has a nonempty open refinement missing that closure. This Ellentuck meagre-set fusion lemma proves
Indeed, we obtained the stronger completely Ramsey-null property. Testing all subsets of the selected prefix was essential; testing just the entire prefix would not cover every infinite subset of .
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 , set
For 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. Let
keeping 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 set
Every 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 that
Each 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 proved
Finally, 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.
The answer is no. Let , regarded as one point of the space of infinite subsets of the natural numbers, and put
The displayed union makes an open set in the Ellentuck topology. On the other hand, every basic neighbourhood of contains a different infinite set: keep and remove one element from its infinite remaining tail. This other point belongs to . Therefore is in the closure of but not in , so
The fact that basic neighbourhoods are clopen sets does not make arbitrary unions of them closed.
The two Ramsey properties and the topologies. Write for the space of infinite subsets of the natural numbers, and for the infinite subsets of . The positive integers are used throughout. A Ramsey set of infinite subsets has the property that every infinite contains an infinite for which lies wholly in or wholly in .
For finite and infinite above , let
These are the basic neighbourhoods of the Ellentuck topology, denoted in the question. They form a basis: if belongs to two such sets, their stems are comparable initial segments of ; take the longer stem and the intersection of the two tails beyond that stem. This intersection contains the infinite remaining tail of and yields a basic set contained in both.
A completely Ramsey set allows such a homogeneous refinement inside every , with infinite and the stem kept fixed. Taking shows that complete Ramseyness implies Ramseyness. The ordinary topology on infinite subsets has basic cylinders
It is the usual product topology on increasing enumerations and is coarser than the Ellentuck topology.
Examples distinguishing the properties. A non-Ramsey example uses the axiom of choice. Let and enumerate all infinite sets as . Each has cardinality : an enumeration of gives the upper bound, and choosing one element from each of infinitely many disjoint pairs gives an injection from all binary sequences for the lower bound.
By transfinite recursion, choose two distinct, previously unused elements at each stage. Fewer than elements have been used at stage , so this is possible without any assumption on the Continuum hypothesis. Put . All the remain outside , since subsequent choices also avoid previously chosen elements. Every contains one and one , so is not a Ramsey set of infinite subsets. This is the non-Ramsey set from transfinite selection construction.
Perform the same construction on , giving a non-Ramsey set , and put
For any infinite , the infinite set has , so is a Ramsey set of infinite subsets. But no with infinite is homogeneous, because meets both and its complement. Therefore is not a completely Ramsey set.
Every star-open set is completely Ramsey. We give the full fusion proof for open Ellentuck sets, without quoting an infinite Ramsey theorem. Fix a star-open set and a basic set . For finite and an infinite tail above , say accepts if ; it rejects if no infinite subset of accepts . Both properties persist under passing to infinite subsets. Every infinite tail can be thinned to decide : take an accepting subset if one exists, and otherwise the original tail rejects it.
First thin to decide . If it accepts, the required homogeneous neighborhood has already been found. Otherwise keep a rejecting tail. We now fuse to an infinite set deciding every finite , where the decision for is made by .
To do this, choose successively from an infinite current tail. After choosing , thin the tail above to decide each of the finitely many subsets of , one after another, before choosing the next element. For any finite , at the stage when its largest element is selected, the current tail decides and contains every later selected element. Heredity therefore gives a decision on . For , rejection persists from the initial tail.
If rejects , only finitely many can have accepting . Otherwise let be the infinite set of those . Every member of has a first new element , and its remaining tail lies in . It therefore belongs to by acceptance of . This would make accept , contradicting rejection.
Thin a second time to so that every finite is rejected. Start with the rejected empty set. At a finite stage, all subsets of the selected elements are rejected. For each of these finitely many subsets, avoid its finitely many next elements that would give an accepted extension, and choose the next beyond all excluded elements. Since decides every finite extension, each new extension is rejected. Induction gives the asserted property of .
We claim . If , openness provides a basic set containing . Extend , if necessary, to an initial segment of containing . Write with finite . The infinite tail lies in and
It is therefore an accepting subtail for , contradicting rejection. We have found either an accepting neighborhood or a neighborhood disjoint from . Thus
Basic neighborhoods are clopen. Consider and a point outside it. If is not an initial segment of , take an initial segment of of length at least ; its ordinary cylinder cannot meet . Otherwise some element of is outside ; take through that element, and again is disjoint from .
Thus the complement of is already open in the ordinary topology on infinite subsets, and hence in the finer Ellentuck topology. A basic neighbourhood is open by definition, so