On the number of vertices and edges of the Buneman graph

In 1971, Peter Buneman proposed a way to construct a tree from a collection of pairwise compatible splits. This construction immediately generalizes to arbitrary collections of splits, and yields a connected median graph, called the Buneman graph. In this paper, we prove that the vertices and the edges of this graph can be described in a very simple way: given a collection of splitsS, the vertices of the Buneman graph correspond precisely to the subsetsS′ ofS such that the splits inS′ are pairwise incompatible and the edges correspond to pairs (S′, S) withS′ as above andS∈S′. Using this characterization, it is much more straightforward to construct the vertices of the Buneman graph than using prior constructions. We also recover as an immediate consequence of this enumeration that the Buneman graph is a tree, that is, that the number of vertices exceeds the number of edges (by one), if and only if any two distinct splits inS are compatible.     

Tactical decompositions and some configurationsv 4

The study of configurations or — more generally — finite incidence geometries is best accomplished by taking into account also their automorphism groups. These groups act on the geometry and in particular on points, blocks, flags and even anti-flags. The orbits of these groups lead to tactical decompositions of the incidence matrices of the geometries or of related geometries. We describe the general procedure and use these decompositions to study symmetric configurationsv ₄ for smallv. Tactical decompositions have also been used to construct all linear spaces on 12 points [2] and all proper linear spaces on 17 points [3].     

An exposition of Hrushovskiʼs New Strongly Minimal Set

We give an exposition of Hrushovski?s New Strongly Minimal Set (1993): A strongly minimal theory which is not locally modular but does not interpret an infinite field. We give an exposition of his construction.     

Splitting families of sets in ZFC

Miller's 1937 splitting theorem was proved for every finite n>0$n>0$ for all ρ-uniform families of sets in which ρ is infinite. A simple method for proving Miller-type splitting theorems is presented here and an extension of Miller's theorem is proved in ZFC for every cardinal ν for all ρ  -uniform families in which ρ≥_?ω(ν)$\rho \ge {\mathrm{?}}_{\omega }(\nu )$. The main ingredient in the method is an asymptotic infinitary Löwenheim–Skolem theorem for anti-monotone set functions.     

Designs as maximum codes in polynomial metric spaces

Finite and infinite metric spaces % MathType!MTEF!2!1!+-% feaafiart1ev1aaatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn% hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqtubsr% 4rNCHbGeaGqiVu0Je9sqqrpepC0xbbL8F4rqqrFfpeea0xe9Lq-Jc9% vqaqpepm0xbba9pwe9Q8fs0-yqaqpepae9pg0FirpepeKkFr0xfr-x% fr-xb9adbaqaaeGaciGaaiaabeqaamaabaabaaGcbaWefv3ySLgzgj% xyRrxDYbqeguuDJXwAKbIrYf2A0vNCaGqbaiab-Xa8nbaa!427C!\[\mathfrak{M}\] that are polynomial with respect to a monotone substitution of variable t(d) are considered. A finite subset (code) W % MathType!MTEF!2!1!+-% feaafeart1ev1aaatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn% hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqtubsr% 4rNCHbGeaGGipm0dc9vqaqpepu0xbbG8F4rqqrFfpeea0xe9Lq-Jc9% vqaqpepm0xbba9pwe9Q8fs0-yqaqpepae9pg0FirpepeKkFr0xfr-x% fr-xb9adbaqaaeGaciGaaiaabeqaamaabaabaaGcbaGaeyOHI0maaa!36D8!\[ \subseteq \] % MathType!MTEF!2!1!+-% feaafiart1ev1aaatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn% hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqtubsr% 4rNCHbGeaGqiVu0Je9sqqrpepC0xbbL8F4rqqrFfpeea0xe9Lq-Jc9% vqaqpepm0xbba9pwe9Q8fs0-yqaqpepae9pg0FirpepeKkFr0xfr-x% fr-xb9adbaqaaeGaciGaaiaabeqaamaabaabaaGcbaWefv3ySLgzgj% xyRrxDYbqeguuDJXwAKbIrYf2A0vNCaGqbaiab-Xa8nbaa!427C!\[\mathfrak{M}\] is characterized by the minimal distance d(W) between its distinct elements, by the number l(W) of distances between its distinct elements and by the maximal strength (W) of the design generated by the code W. A code W % MathType!MTEF!2!1!+-% feaafeart1ev1aaatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn% hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqtubsr% 4rNCHbGeaGGipm0dc9vqaqpepu0xbbG8F4rqqrFfpeea0xe9Lq-Jc9% vqaqpepm0xbba9pwe9Q8fs0-yqaqpepae9pg0FirpepeKkFr0xfr-x% fr-xb9adbaqaaeGaciGaaiaabeqaamaabaabaaGcbaGaeyOHI0maaa!36D8!\[ \subseteq \] % MathType!MTEF!2!1!+-% feaafiart1ev1aaatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn% hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqtubsr% 4rNCHbGeaGqiVu0Je9sqqrpepC0xbbL8F4rqqrFfpeea0xe9Lq-Jc9% vqaqpepm0xbba9pwe9Q8fs0-yqaqpepae9pg0FirpepeKkFr0xfr-x% fr-xb9adbaqaaeGaciGaaiaabeqaamaabaabaaGcbaWefv3ySLgzgj% xyRrxDYbqeguuDJXwAKbIrYf2A0vNCaGqbaiab-Xa8nbaa!427C!\[\mathfrak{M}\] is called a maximum one if it has the greatest cardinality among subsets of % MathType!MTEF!2!1!+-% feaafiart1ev1aaatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn% hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqtubsr% 4rNCHbGeaGqiVu0Je9sqqrpepC0xbbL8F4rqqrFfpeea0xe9Lq-Jc9% vqaqpepm0xbba9pwe9Q8fs0-yqaqpepae9pg0FirpepeKkFr0xfr-x% fr-xb9adbaqaaeGaciGaaiaabeqaamaabaabaaGcbaWefv3ySLgzgj% xyRrxDYbqeguuDJXwAKbIrYf2A0vNCaGqbaiab-Xa8nbaa!427C!\[\mathfrak{M}\] with minimal distance at least d(W), and diametrical if the diameter of W is equal to the diameter of the whole space % MathType!MTEF!2!1!+-% feaafiart1ev1aaatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn% hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqtubsr% 4rNCHbGeaGqiVu0Je9sqqrpepC0xbbL8F4rqqrFfpeea0xe9Lq-Jc9% vqaqpepm0xbba9pwe9Q8fs0-yqaqpepae9pg0FirpepeKkFr0xfr-x% fr-xb9adbaqaaeGaciGaaiaabeqaamaabaabaaGcbaWefv3ySLgzgj% xyRrxDYbqeguuDJXwAKbIrYf2A0vNCaGqbaiab-Xa8nbaa!427C!\[\mathfrak{M}\]. Delsarte codes are codes W % MathType!MTEF!2!1!+-% feaafeart1ev1aaatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn% hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqtubsr% 4rNCHbGeaGGipm0dc9vqaqpepu0xbbG8F4rqqrFfpeea0xe9Lq-Jc9% vqaqpepm0xbba9pwe9Q8fs0-yqaqpepae9pg0FirpepeKkFr0xfr-x% fr-xb9adbaqaaeGaciGaaiaabeqaamaabaabaaGcbaGaeyOHI0maaa!36D8!\[ \subseteq \] % MathType!MTEF!2!1!+-% feaafiart1ev1aaatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn% hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqtubsr% 4rNCHbGeaGqiVu0Je9sqqrpepC0xbbL8F4rqqrFfpeea0xe9Lq-Jc9% vqaqpepm0xbba9pwe9Q8fs0-yqaqpepae9pg0FirpepeKkFr0xfr-x% fr-xb9adbaqaaeGaciGaaiaabeqaamaabaabaaGcbaWefv3ySLgzgj% xyRrxDYbqeguuDJXwAKbIrYf2A0vNCaGqbaiab-Xa8nbaa!427C!\[\mathfrak{M}\] with (W)2l(W)–1 or (W)=2l(W)–2>0 and W is a diametrical code. It is shown that all parameters of Delsarte codes W) % MathType!MTEF!2!1!+-% feaafeart1ev1aaatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn% hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqtubsr% 4rNCHbGeaGGipm0dc9vqaqpepu0xbbG8F4rqqrFfpeea0xe9Lq-Jc9% vqaqpepm0xbba9pwe9Q8fs0-yqaqpepae9pg0FirpepeKkFr0xfr-x% fr-xb9adbaqaaeGaciGaaiaabeqaamaabaabaaGcbaGaeyOHI0maaa!36D8!\[ \subseteq \] % MathType!MTEF!2!1!+-% feaafiart1ev1aaatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn% hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqtubsr% 4rNCHbGeaGqiVu0Je9sqqrpepC0xbbL8F4rqqrFfpeea0xe9Lq-Jc9% vqaqpepm0xbba9pwe9Q8fs0-yqaqpepae9pg0FirpepeKkFr0xfr-x% fr-xb9adbaqaaeGaciGaaiaabeqaamaabaabaaGcbaWefv3ySLgzgj% xyRrxDYbqeguuDJXwAKbIrYf2A0vNCaGqbaiab-Xa8nbaa!427C!\[\mathfrak{M}\] are uniquely determined by their cardinality |W| or minimal distance d(W) and that the minimal polynomials of the Delsarte codes W % MathType!MTEF!2!1!+-% feaafeart1ev1aaatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn% hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqtubsr% 4rNCHbGeaGGipm0dc9vqaqpepu0xbbG8F4rqqrFfpeea0xe9Lq-Jc9% vqaqpepm0xbba9pwe9Q8fs0-yqaqpepae9pg0FirpepeKkFr0xfr-x% fr-xb9adbaqaaeGaciGaaiaabeqaamaabaabaaGcbaGaeyOHI0maaa!36D8!\[ \subseteq \] % MathType!MTEF!2!1!+-% feaafiart1ev1aaatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn% hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqtubsr% 4rNCHbGeaGqiVu0Je9sqqrpepC0xbbL8F4rqqrFfpeea0xe9Lq-Jc9% vqaqpepm0xbba9pwe9Q8fs0-yqaqpepae9pg0FirpepeKkFr0xfr-x% fr-xb9adbaqaaeGaciGaaiaabeqaamaabaabaaGcbaWefv3ySLgzgj% xyRrxDYbqeguuDJXwAKbIrYf2A0vNCaGqbaiab-Xa8nbaa!427C!\[\mathfrak{M}\] are expansible with positive coefficients in an orthogonal system of polynomials {Q _i(t)} corresponding to % MathType!MTEF!2!1!+-% feaafiart1ev1aaatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn% hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqtubsr% 4rNCHbGeaGqiVu0Je9sqqrpepC0xbbL8F4rqqrFfpeea0xe9Lq-Jc9% vqaqpepm0xbba9pwe9Q8fs0-yqaqpepae9pg0FirpepeKkFr0xfr-x% fr-xb9adbaqaaeGaciGaaiaabeqaamaabaabaaGcbaWefv3ySLgzgj% xyRrxDYbqeguuDJXwAKbIrYf2A0vNCaGqbaiab-Xa8nbaa!427C!\[\mathfrak{M}\]. The main results of the present paper consist in a proof of maximality of all Delsarte codes provided that the system {Q _i)} satisfies some condition and of a new proof confirming in this case the validity of all the results on the upper bounds for the maximum cardinality of codes W % MathType!MTEF!2!1!+-% feaafeart1ev1aaatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn% hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqtubsr% 4rNCHbGeaGGipm0dc9vqaqpepu0xbbG8F4rqqrFfpeea0xe9Lq-Jc9% vqaqpepm0xbba9pwe9Q8fs0-yqaqpepae9pg0FirpepeKkFr0xfr-x% fr-xb9adbaqaaeGaciGaaiaabeqaamaabaabaaGcbaGaeyOHI0maaa!36D8!\[ \subseteq \]% MathType!MTEF!2!1!+-% feaafiart1ev1aaatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn% hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqtubsr% 4rNCHbGeaGqiVu0Je9sqqrpepC0xbbL8F4rqqrFfpeea0xe9Lq-Jc9% vqaqpepm0xbba9pwe9Q8fs0-yqaqpepae9pg0FirpepeKkFr0xfr-x% fr-xb9adbaqaaeGaciGaaiaabeqaamaabaabaaGcbaWefv3ySLgzgj% xyRrxDYbqeguuDJXwAKbIrYf2A0vNCaGqbaiab-Xa8nbaa!427C!\[\mathfrak{M}\] with a given minimal distance, announced by the author in 1978. Moreover, it appeared that this condition is satisfied for all infinite polynomial metric spaces as well as for distance-regular graphs, decomposable in a sense defined below. It is also proved that with one exception all classical distance-regular graphs are decomposable. In addition for decomposable distance-regular graphs an improvement of the absolute Delsarte bound for diametrical codes is obtained. For the Hamming and Johnson spaces, Euclidean sphere, real and complex projective spaces, tables containing parameters of known Delsarte codes are presented. Moreover, for each of the above-mentioned infinite spaces infinite sequences (of maximum) Delsarte codes not belonging to tight designs are indicated.     

Signed permutations and the four color theorem

Let σ₁,σ₂ be two permutations in the symmetric group S_n. Among the many sequences of elementary transpositions τ₁,…,τ_r transforming σ₁ into σ₂=τ_rτ₁σ₁, some of them may be signable, a property introduced in this paper. We show that the four color theorem in graph theory is equivalent to the statement that, for any n≥2 and any σ₁,σ₂S_n, there exists at least one signable sequence of elementary transpositions from σ₁ to σ₂. This algebraic reformulation rests on a former geometric one in terms of signed diagonal flips, together with a codification of the triangulations of a convex polygon on n+2 vertices by permutations in S_n.     

POWER STRUCTURES AND LOGIC

ABSTRACT

This paper generalizes the concept of a power alge bra to that of a power structure, and gives three application of power structures to logic.     

Almost Covers Of 2-Arc Transitive Graphs

Let be a G-symmetric graph whose vertex set admits a nontrivial G-invariant partition with block size v. Let be the quotient graph of relative to and [B,C] the bipartite subgraph of induced by adjacent blocks B,C of . In this paper we study such graphs for which is connected, (G, 2)-arc transitive and is almost covered by in the sense that [B,C] is a matching of v-1 2 edges. Such graphs arose as a natural extremal case in a previous study by the author with Li and Praeger. The case K _v+1 is covered by results of Gardiner and Praeger. We consider here the general case where K _v+1, and prove that, for some even integer n 4, is a near n-gonal graph with respect to a certain G-orbit on n-cycles of . Moreover, we prove that every (G, 2)-arc transitive near n-gonal graph with respect to a G-orbit on n-cycles arises as a quotient of a graph with these properties. (A near n-gonal graph is a connected graph of girth at least 4 together with a set of n-cycles of such that each 2-arc of is contained in a unique member of .)     

Expressive completeness through logically tractable models

How can we prove that some fragment of a given logic has the power to define precisely all structural properties that satisfy some characteristic semantic preservation condition? This issue is a fundamental one for classical model theory and applications in non-classical settings alike. While methods differ greatly, and while the classical methods can usually not be matched for instance in the setting of finite model theory, this note surveys some interesting commonality revolving around the use and availability of tractable representatives in the relevant model classes. The construction of models in which simple invariants like partial types based on some weak fragment control all the relevant structural properties, may be seen at the heart of such questions. We highlight some constructions involving degrees of acyclicity and saturation that can be achieved in finite model constructions, and discuss their uses towards expressive completeness w.r.t. bisimulation based equivalences in hypergraphs and relational structures. The emphasis is on the combinatorial challenges in such more constructive approaches that work in non-classical settings and especially in finite model theory. One new result concerns expressive completeness w.r.t. guarded negation bisimulation, a back-and-forth equivalence involving local homomorphisms.     

The strength of extensionality II — Weak weak set theories without infinity

By obtaining several new results on Cook-style two-sorted bounded arithmetic, this paper measures the strengths of the axiom of extensionality and of other weak fundamental set-theoretic axioms in the absence of the axiom of infinity, following the author’s previous work [K. Sato, The strength of extensionality I — weak weak set theories with infinity, Annals of Pure and Applied Logic 157 (2009) 234-268] which measures them in the presence. These investigations provide a uniform framework in which three different kinds of reverse mathematics-Friedman-Simpson’s “orthodox” reverse mathematics, Cook’s bounded reverse mathematics and large cardinal theory-can be reformulated within one language so that we can compare them more directly.     

Injective power objects and the axiom of choice

“The axiom of choice states that any set X of non-empty sets has a choice function—i.e. a function satisfying f(x)∈x for all x∈X. When we want to generalise this to a topos, we have to choose what we mean by non-empty, since in , the three concepts non-empty, inhabited, and injective are equivalent, so the axiom of choice can be thought of as any of the three statements made by replacing “non-empty” by one of these notions.It seems unnatural to use non-empty in an intuitionistic context, so the first interpretation to be used in topos theory was the notion based on inhabited objects. However, Diaconescu (1975) [1] showed that this interpretation implied the law of the excluded middle, and that without the law of the excluded middle, even the finite version of the axiom of choice does not hold! Nevertheless some people still view this as the most appropriate formulation of the axiom of choice in a topos.In this paper, we study the formulation based upon injective objects. We argue that it can be considered a more natural formulation of the axiom of choice in a topos, and that it does not have the undesirable consequences of the inhabited formulation. We show that if it holds for , then it holds in a wide variety of topoi, including all localic topoi. It also has some of the classical consequences of the axiom of choice, although a lot of classical results rely on both the axiom of choice and the law of the excluded middle. An additional advantage of this formulation is that it can be defined for a slightly more general class of categories than just topoi.We also examine the corresponding injective formulations of Zorn’s lemma and the well-order principle. The injective form of Zorn’s lemma is equivalent to the axiom of injective choice, and the injective well-order principle implies the axiom of injective choice.     

How to make a digraph strongly connected

Given a directed graphG, acovering is a subsetB of edges which meets all directed cuts ofG. Equivalently, the contraction of the elements ofB makesG strongly connected. AnO(n ⁵) primal-dual algorithm is presented for finding a minimum weight covering of an edge-weighted digraph. The algorithm also provides a constructive proof for a min-max theorem due to Lucchesi and Younger and for its weighted version.     

Clones of implicit operations

There is a close connection between a variety and its clone. The clone of a variety is a multibased algebra, where the different universes are the sets of n-ary terms over this variety for every natural number n and where the operations describe the superposition of terms of different arities. All projections are added as nullary operations. Subvarieties correspond to homomorphic images of clones. Subclones can be described by reducts of varieties, isomorphic clones by equivalent varieties. Clone identities correspond to hyperidentities and varieties of clones to hypervarieties. Pseudovarieties are classes of finite algebras which are closed under taking of subalgebras, homomorphic images and finite direct products. Pseudovarieties are important in the theories of finite state automata, rational languages, finite semigroups and their connections. In a very natural way, there arises the question for the clone of a pseudovariety. In the present paper, we will describe this algebraic structure. Received April 6, 2004; accepted in final form March 28, 2005.     

MacNeille completions of lattice expansions

There are two natural ways to extend an arbitrary map between (the carriers of) two lattices, to a map between their MacNeille completions. In this paper we investigate which properties of lattice maps are preserved under these constructions, and for which kind of maps the two extensions coincide. Our perspective involves a number of topologies on lattice completions, including the Scott topologies and topologies that are induced by the original lattice. We provide a characterization of the MacNeille completion in terms of these induced topologies. We then turn to expansions of lattices with additional operations, and address the question of which equational properties of such lattice expansions are preserved under various types of MacNeille completions that can be defined for these algebras. For a number of cases, including modal algebras and residuated (ortho)lattice expansions, we provide reasonably sharp sufficient conditions on the syntactic shape of equations that guarantee preservation. Generally, our results show that the more residuation properties the primitive operations satisfy, the more equations are preserved. Received August 21, 2005; accepted in final form October 17, 2006.     

Kripke models for classical logic

We introduce a notion of the Kripke model for classical logic for which we constructively prove the soundness and cut-free completeness. We discuss the novelty of the notion and its potential applications.     

A lower bound for the recognition of digraph properties

The complexity of a digraph property is the number of entries of the adjacency matrix which must be examined by a decision tree algorithm to recognize the property in the worst case, Aanderaa and Rosenberg conjectured that there is a constant such that every digraph property which is monotone (not destroyed by the deletion of edges) and nontrivial (holds for some but not all digraphs) has complexity at leastv ² wherev is the number of nodes in the digraph. This conjecture was proved by Rivest and Vuillemin and a lower bound ofv ²/4–o(v ²) was subsequently found by Kahn, Saks, and Sturtevant. Here we show a lower bound ofv ²/2–o(v ²). We also prove that a certain class of monotone, nontrivial bipartite digraph properties is evasive (requires that every entry in the adjacency matrix be examined in the worst case).     

Unprovability threshold for the planar graph minor theorem

This note is part of the implementation of a programme in foundations of mathematics to find exact threshold versions of all mathematical unprovability results known so far, a programme initiated by Weiermann. Here we find the exact versions of unprovability of the finite graph minor theorem with growth rate condition restricted to planar graphs, connected planar graphs and graphs embeddable into a given surface, assuming an unproved conjecture (*): ‘there is a number a>0 such that for all k≥3, and all n≥1, the proportion of connected graphs among unlabelled planar graphs of size n omitting the k-element circle as minor is greater than a’. Let γ be the unlabelled planar growth constant (27.2269≤γ<30.061). Let P(c) be the following first-order arithmetical statement with real parameter c: “for every K there is N such that whenever G₁,G₂,…,G_N are unlabelled planar graphs with |G_i|<K+c⋅log₂i then for some i<j≤N, G_i is isomorphic to a minor of G_j”. Then

1.

for every , P(c) is provable in IΔ₀+exp;

2.

for every , P(c) is unprovable in .

We also give proofs of some upper and lower bounds for unprovability thresholds in the general case of the finite graph minor theorem.     

On linear spaces and matroids of arbitrary cardinality

In this paper, we study linear spaces of arbitrary finite dimension on some (possibly infinite) set. We interpret linear spaces as simple matroids and study the problem of erecting some linear space of dimension n to some linear space of dimension n + 1 if possible. Several examples of some such erections are studied; in particular, one of these erections is computed within some infinite iteration process.Dedicated to the memory of Gian-Carlo Rota     

Coding into Ramsey sets

In [6] W. T. Gowers formulated and proved a Ramsey-type result which lies at the heart of his famous dichotomy for Banach spaces. He defines the notion of weakly Ramsey set of block sequences of an infinite dimensional Banach space and shows that every analytic set of block sequences is weakly Ramsey. We show here that Gowers’ result follows quite directly from the fact that all G_δ sets are weakly Ramsey, if the Banach space does not contain c₀, and from the fact that all F_σδ sets are weakly Ramsey, in the case of an arbitrary Banach space. We also show that every result obtained by the application of Gowers’ theorem to an analytic set can also be obtained by applying the Theorem to a F_σδ set (or to a G_δ set if the space does not contain c₀). This fact explains why the only known applications of this technique are based on very low-ranked Borel sets (open, closed, F_σ, or G_δ).