CHAPTER 2
X-SUSLIN AND A-BOREL
One of the chief motivations for studying projective sets is that we can settle for them many questions which seem in...
One of the chief motivations for studying projective sets is that we can settle for them many questions which seem intractable for arbitrary sets. The hierarchy of the Lusin pointclasses is important because it is often the case that a simple observation about open sets turn into a deep theorem about Z: sets, an elegant generalization about Z: sets and a very difficult problem about Xi or 2 : sets. For example, consider the central question of set theory, the continuum problem : must each uncountable pointset be equinumerous with a? Godel and Cohen have shown that both answers are consistent with the currently accepted axioms of set theory, but it is still open whether the question may be settled on the basis of generally acceptable properties of sets. In any case, we can try to settle it for specific pointclasses, preferably large pointclasses that contain most sets encountered in traditional mathematics. One of the first important results of descriptive set theory was that every uncountable Z: set is equinumerous with &. More recently, this has been extended by Solovay and Mansfield to Z: and 2 : sets respectively, granting some strong set theoretic axioms that are unprovable in Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory. The situation is a bit murkier for the higher Lush pointclasses, but there are (very strong) plausible hypotheses which imply that every uncountable projective set is equinumerous with a. The same situation occurs with several other regularity properties of sets. For example, every 2: set is absolutely measurable and has the property of Baire. There are again suitable generalizations of these results to the higher Lusin pointclasses, if we assume strong set theoretic hyotheses. The central classical result of the theory is Suslin's Theorem: every A: set is Borel. More than a regularity property, this is a construction principle, since it yields a reduction of the complicated projection operation (in this simple instance) to an iteration of the more elementary 65
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operations of countable union and complementation. A somewhat weaker construction principle is Sierpinski’s theorem that every Xi set is the union of NI Bore1 sets. In this chapter we will establish some of the basic classical structure results about 2: and 2 : pointsets. Actually we will work with the wider classes of x-Suslin sets, where x is any infinite cardinal number-this will ease extension of this theorem to the higher Lusin pointclasses. The 2: sets are precisely the Ko-Suslin sets and every 2: set is HI-Suslin.
2A. The Cantor-Bendixson theorem For any set A, let
c a r d ( A )= the cardinal number of A. By 1G.4, every perfect Polish space ‘32 is equinumerous with X, hence
card (nt)= card ( X )= 2Ko. If P is a perfect subset of nt (i.e. P is closed and has no isolated points) and P f g , then P is a perfect Polish subspace of nt, so again card(P)= 2“). This settles the continuum problem for perfect sets.
2A.1. THECANTOR-BENDIXSON THEOREM. If A is a closed pointset, then A=PUS
where P is perfect, S is countable and P n S = @ . Moreouer, there is only one such decomposition of A into two disjoint sets, one perfect the other countable. PROOF.A point x is a condensation point of A if every nbhd of x intersects A in an uncountable set. Put P ={x: x
is a condensation point of
A},
S=A-P. Since condensation points are clearly limit points and A is closed, we have P G A, and by definition P fl S = 0,A = P U S. We will show that S is countable, P is perfect and if A = P’U S’ with P’ perfect, S’ countable and P’nS’= 0,then P’= P, S’ = S.
2A.41
THECANTOR-BENDIXSON THEOREM
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To each y E S we can assign some basic nbhd NY such that NYf l A is countable. Since there are only countably many basic nbhds altogether, there is a countable sequence No,N ’ ,....such that S c UiG,(N’n A )
with each N’ n A countable, so S is countable. To prove that P is closed, let x be a limit point of P, N any nbhd of x. Then some x’ E N f l P, hence N contains some nbhd N’ of x‘ which in turn contains uncountably many points of A ; hence x E P. To prove P perfect, if x E P, then every nbhd of x contains uncountably many points of A of which only countably many can be in S-hence at least two are in P. Finally, assume that A = P’U S’ with P’, S’ as above. If x E P’ and N is any nbhd of x, choose some nbhd N , of x with N , c N and check that N, fl P’ is a perfect subset of N, nP’c N nP’, so N r l P’ is uncountable and hence x E P; this proves P’ E P. On the other hand, if y E S‘, then there is some nbhd N of y such that N nP’ = 8, since P’ is closed; hence N f l A = N f l S’, i.e. N r l A is countable and y E S. -I
In this canonical decomposition A=PUS of a closed pointset, we call P the (perfect) kernel and S the scattered part of A. It is worth putting down explicitly the corollary about the size of closed sets.
2A.2. COROLLARY. Every uncountable closed pointset contains a perfect -I subset and hence has cardinality 251. We can think of the Cantor-Bendixson Theorem as a construction principle, since it gives us a method of building up the closed sets from the apparently simpler perfect sets and countable sets. EXERCISES
2A.3. A point x is an isolated point of the pointset A if x E A and x is not a limit point of A. Prove that a pointset has at most countably many isolated points. -I 2A.4. Define the derivative A‘ of a pointset A by A’ = {x E A :x is a limit point of A).
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For fixed closed A, define by transfinite recursion the sets A, = A, AE+l =(A,)'