Partition Problems in Topology

Book excerpt: This book presents results on the case of the Ramsey problem for the uncountable: When does a partition of a square of an uncountable set have an uncountable homogeneous set? This problem most frequently appears in areas of general topology, measure theory, and functional analysis. Building on his solution of one of the two most basic partition problems in general topology, the ``S-space problem,'' the author has unified most of the existing results on the subject and made many improvements and simplifications. The first eight sections of the book require basic knowldege of naive set theory at the level of a first year graduate or advanced undergraduate student. The book may also be of interest to the exclusively set-theoretic reader, for it provides an excellent introduction to the subject of forcing axioms of set theory, such as Martin's axiom and the Proper forcing axiom.