Paper detail

The Hurewicz dichotomy for generalized Baire spaces

By classical results of Hurewicz, Kechris and Saint-Raymond, an analytic subset of a Polish space $X$ is covered by a $K_σ$ subset of $X$ if and only if it does not contain a closed-in-$X$ subset homeomorphic to the Baire space ${}^ωω$. We consider the analogous statement (which we call Hurewicz dichotomy) for $Σ^1_1$ subsets of the generalized Baire space ${}^κκ$ for a given uncountable cardinal $κ$ with $κ=κ^{<κ}$, and show how to force it to be true in a cardinal and cofinality preserving extension of the ground model. Moreover, we show that if the Generalized Continuum Hypothesis (GCH) holds, then there is a cardinal preserving class-forcing extension in which the Hurewicz dichotomy for $Σ^1_1$ subsets of ${}^κκ$ holds at all uncountable regular cardinals $κ$, while strongly unfoldable and supercompact cardinals are preserved. On the other hand, in the constructible universe L the dichotomy for $Σ^1_1$ sets fails at all uncountable regular cardinals, and the same happens in any generic extension obtained by adding a Cohen real to a model of GCH. We also discuss connections with some regularity properties, like the $κ$-perfect set property, the $κ$-Miller measurability, and the $κ$-Sacks measurability.