Shadows of the axiom of choice in the universe $$L(\mathbb {R})$$

We show that several theorems about Polish spaces, which depend on the axiom of choice (\(\mathcal {AC}\)), have interesting corollaries that are theorems of the theory \(\mathcal {ZF} + \mathcal {DC}\), where \(\mathcal {DC}\) is the axiom of dependent choices. Surprisingly it is natural to use the full \(\mathcal {AC}\) to prove the existence of these proofs; in fact we do not even know the proofs in \(\mathcal {ZF} + \mathcal {DC}\). Let \(\mathcal {AD}\) denote the axiom of determinacy. We show also, in the theory \(\mathcal {ZF} + \mathcal {AD} + V = L(\mathbb {R})\), a theorem which strenghtens and generalizes the theorem of Drinfeld (Funct Anal Appl 18:245–246, 1985) and Margulis (Monatshefte Math 90:233–235, 1980) about the unicity of Lebesgue’s measure. This generalization is false in \(\mathcal {ZFC}\), but assuming the existence of large enough cardinals it is true in the model \(\langle L(\mathbb {R}),\in \rangle \).