Almost Disjoint Families of Representing Sets

Abstract

The thesis is concerned with a number of problems in Combinatorial Set Theory. The Generalized Continuum Hypothesis is assumed. Suppose X and K are non-zero cardinals. By successively identifying K with airwise disjoint sets of power K, a function/: X-*•K can be viewed as a transversal of a pairwise disjoint (X, K)family A . Questions about families of functions in K can thus bethought of as referring to families of transversals of A. We wish to consider generalizations of such questions to almost disjoint families; in particular we are interested in extensions of the following two problems: (i) What is the 'maximum' cardinality of an almost disjoint family of functions each mapping X into K? (ii) Describe the cardinalities of maximal almost disjoint families of functions each mapping X into K. Article in Bulletin of the Australian Mathematical Society 27(03):477 - 479 · June 1983