Finite Ramsey degrees and Fraïssé expansions with the Ramsey property

Fraïssé’s Conjecture and big Ramsey degrees of structures admitting finite monomorphic decomposition

Abstract In this paper, we prove the existence of small and big Ramsey degrees of classes of finite unary algebras in an arbitrary (not necessarily finite) algebraic language Ω. Our results generalize some Ramsey-type results of M. Sokić concerning finite unary algebras over finite languages. To do so, we develop a completely new strategy that relies on the fact that right adjoints preserve the Ramsey property. We then treat unary algebras as Eilenberg-Moore coalgebras for a functor with comultiplication, and using pre-adjunctions transport the Ramsey properties, we are interested in from the category of finite or countably infinite chains of order type ω. Moreover, we show that finite objects have finite big Ramsey degrees in the corresponding cofree structures over countably many generators.

This paper investigates big Ramsey degrees of unrestricted relational structures in (possibly) infinite languages. Despite significant progress in the study of big Ramsey degrees, the big Ramsey degrees of many classes of structures with finite small Ramsey degrees are still not well understood. We show that if there are only finitely many relations of every arity greater than one, then unrestricted relational structures have finite big Ramsey degrees, and give some evidence that this is tight. This is the first time finiteness of big Ramsey degrees has been established for a random structure in an infinite language. Our results represent an important step towards a better understanding of big Ramsey degrees for structures with relations of arity greater than two.

We characterize the big Ramsey degrees of free amalgamation classes in finite binary languages defined by finitely many forbidden irreducible substructures, thus refining the recent upper bounds given by Zucker. Using this characterization, we show that the Fraïssé limit of each such class admits a big Ramsey structure satisfying the infinite Ramsey theorem, implying that the automorphism group of the Fraïssé limit has a metrizable universal completion flow.

Big Ramsey degrees in ultraproducts of finite structures

Abstract We investigate the notion of a semi-retraction between two first-order structures (in typically different signatures) that was introduced by the second author as a link between the Ramsey property and generalized indiscernible sequences. We look at semi-retractions through a new lens establishing transfers of the Ramsey property and finite Ramsey degrees under quite general conditions that are optimal as demonstrated by counterexamples. Finally, we compare semi-retractions to the category theoretic notion of a pre-adjunction.

Carlson-Simpson's lemma and applications in reverse mathematics

Dual Ramsey properties for classes of algebras

We give an infinitary extension of the Nešetřil-Rödl theorem for category of relational structures with special type-respecting embeddings.

In this paper we provide purely categorical proofs of two important results of structural Ramsey theory: the result of M. Sokić that the free product of Ramsey classes is a Ramsey class, and the result of M. Bodirsky that adding constants to the language of a Ramsey class preserves the Ramsey property. The proofs that we present here ignore the model-theoretic background of these statements. Instead, they focus on categorical constructions by which the classes can be constructed generalizing the original statements along the way. It turns out that the restriction to classes of relational structures, although fundamental for the original proof strategies, is not relevant for the statements themselves. The categorical proofs we present here remove all restrictions on the signature of first-order structures and provide the information not only about the Ramsey property but also about the Ramsey degrees.

Analogues of Ramsey’s Theorem for infinite structures such as the rationals or the Rado graph have been known for some time. In this context, one looks for optimal bounds, called degrees, for the number of colors in an isomorphic substructure rather than one color, as that is often impossible. Such theorems for Henson graphs however remained elusive, due to lack of techniques for handling forbidden cliques. Building on the author’s recent result for the triangle-free Henson graph, we prove that for each [Formula: see text], the k-clique-free Henson graph has finite big Ramsey degrees, the appropriate analogue of Ramsey’s Theorem. We develop a method for coding copies of Henson graphs into a new class of trees, called strong coding trees, and prove Ramsey theorems for these trees which are applied to deduce finite big Ramsey degrees. The approach here provides a general methodology opening further study of big Ramsey degrees for ultrahomogeneous structures. The results have bearing on topological dynamics via work of Kechris, Pestov, and Todorcevic and of Zucker.

We build a collection of topological Ramsey spaces of trees giving rise to universal inverse limit structures, extending Zheng’s work for the profinite graph to the setting of Fraïssé classes of finite ordered binary relational structures with the Ramsey property. This work is based on the Halpern-Läuchli theorem, but different from the Milliken space of strong subtrees. Based on these topological Ramsey spaces and the work of Huber-Geschke-Kojman on inverse limits of finite ordered graphs, we prove that for each such Fraïssé class, its universal inverse limit structure has finite big Ramsey degrees under finite Baire-measurable colorings. For such Fraïssé classes satisfying free amalgamation as well as finite ordered tournaments and finite partial orders with a linear extension, we characterize the exact big Ramsey degrees.

A big Ramsey spectrum of a countable chain (i.e. strict linear order) C is a sequence of big Ramsey degrees of finite chains computed in C. In this paper we consider big Ramsey spectra of countable scattered chains. We prove that countable scattered chains of infinite Hausdorff rank do not have finite big Ramsey spectra, and that countable scattered chains of finite Hausdorff rank with bounded finite sums have finite big Ramsey spectra. Since big Ramsey spectra of all non-scattered countable chains are finite by results of Galvin, Laver and Devlin, in order to complete the characterization of countable chains with finite big Ramsey spectra (or degrees) one still has to resolve the remaining case of countable scattered chains of finite Hausdorff rank whose finite sums are not bounded.

On big Ramsey degrees for binary free amalgamation classes

This paper investigates properties of \(\sigma \)-closed forcings which generate ultrafilters satisfying weak partition relations. The Ramsey degree of an ultrafilter \({\mathcal {U}}\) for n-tuples, denoted \(t({\mathcal {U}},n)\), is the smallest number t such that given any \(l\ge 2\) and coloring \(c:[\omega ]^n\rightarrow l\), there is a member \(X\in {\mathcal {U}}\) such that the restriction of c to \([X]^n\) has no more than t colors. Many well-known \(\sigma \)-closed forcings are known to generate ultrafilters with finite Ramsey degrees, but finding the precise degrees can sometimes prove elusive or quite involved, at best. In this paper, we utilize methods of topological Ramsey spaces to calculate Ramsey degrees of several classes of ultrafilters generated by \(\sigma \)-closed forcings. These include a hierarchy of forcings due to Laflamme which generate weakly Ramsey and weaker rapid p-points, forcings of Baumgartner and Taylor and of Blass and generalizations, and the collection of non-p-points generated by the forcings \({\mathcal {P}}(\omega ^k)/\mathrm {Fin}^{\otimes k}\). We provide a general approach to calculating the Ramsey degrees of these ultrafilters, obtaining new results as well as streamlined proofs of previously known results. In the second half of the paper, we calculate pseudointersection and tower numbers for these \(\sigma \)-closed forcings and their relationships with the classical pseudointersection number \({\mathfrak {p}}\).

We prove that the universal homogeneous 3-uniform hypergraph has finite big Ramsey degrees. This is the first case where big Ramsey degrees are known to be finite for structures in a non-binary language.Our proof is based on the vector (or product) form of Milliken’s Tree Theorem and demonstrates a general method to carry existing results on structures in binary relational languages to higher arities.

Ramsey degrees: Big v. small

In this paper we consider big Ramsey degrees of finite chains in countable ordinals. We prove that a countable ordinal has finite big Ramsey degrees if and only if it is smaller than ωω. Big Ramsey degrees of finite chains in all other countable ordinals are infinite.

Finite big Ramsey degrees in universal structures