## Using Dushnik-Miller to prove that every sigma-compact group is ccc

(This is the write-up for a talk I gave in the Toronto Student Set Theory and Topology seminar on May 2, 2013.)

A couple of weeks ago I gave a talk for the set-theoretic topology course I was in, on the topic of cardinal invariants of topological groups. While I was preparing that presentation I discovered the following fact:

#### Theorem [Tkachenko, 1983] Every $\sigma$-compact group is ccc.

I will present a proof that I have adapted from Tkachenko’s original paper (“Souslin property in free topological groups on bicompacta”) and the proof that appears in Arhangel’skii & Tkachenko’s big purple book (Section 5.3 of Topological Groups and Related Structures). Both proofs involve first proving a Ramsey result about covers of a space, then using this to prove that a particular space has “weak-precalibre $\aleph_1$” (i.e. Property K) which is a property that implies ccc. Learning this proof has been part of my ongoing attempt to learn how Ramsey results show up in topology.

## Stevo’s Forcing Class Fall 2012 – Class 11

(This is the eleventh lecture in Stevo Todorcevic’s Forcing class, held in the fall of 2012. You can find the tenth lecture here. Quotes by Stevo are in dark blue; some are deep, some are funny, some are paraphrased so use your judgement. As always I appreciate any type of feedback, including reporting typos, in the comments below.)

## Stevo’s Forcing Class Fall 2012 – Class 10

(This is the tenth lecture in Stevo Todorcevic’s Forcing class, held in the fall of 2012. You can find the ninth lecture here. Quotes by Stevo are in dark blue; some are deep, some are funny, some are paraphrased so use your judgement. As always I appreciate any type of feedback, including reporting typos, in the comments below. I am sure that this one has a ton of typos. There are also some omissions which I will try to patch up.)

## Stevo’s Forcing Class Fall 2012 – Class 9

(This is the ninth lecture in Stevo Todorcevic’s Forcing class, held in the fall of 2012. You can find the eighth lecture here. Quotes by Stevo are in dark blue; some are deep, some are funny, some are paraphrased so use your judgement. As always I appreciate any type of feedback, including reporting typos, in the comments below.)

## Stevo’s Forcing Class Fall 2012 – Class 8

(This is the eighth lecture in Stevo Todorcevic’s Forcing class, held in the fall of 2012. You can find the seventh lecture here. Quotes by Stevo are in dark blue; some are deep, some are funny, some are paraphrased so use your judgement. I didn’t take these notes, so there are few Stevo quotes. Thanks to Dana Bartasova for letting me reproduce her notes here. As always I appreciate any type of feedback, including reporting typos, in the comments below.)

## Stevo’s Forcing Class Fall 2012 – Class 7

(This is the seventh lecture in Stevo Todorcevic’s Forcing class, held in the fall of 2012. You can find the sixth lecture here. Quotes by Stevo are in dark blue; some are deep, some are funny, some are paraphrased so use your judgement. As always I appreciate any type of feedback, including reporting typos, in the comments below.)

## Stevo’s Forcing Class Fall 2012 – Class 6

(This is the sixth lecture in Stevo Todorcevic’s Forcing class, held in the fall of 2012. You can find the fifth lecture here. Quotes by Stevo are in dark blue; some are deep, some are funny, some are paraphrased so use your judgement. As always I appreciate any type of feedback, including reporting typos, in the comments below.)