We develop a transfer principle of structural Ramsey theory from finite structures to ultraproducts. We show that under certain mild conditions, when a class of finite structures has finite small Ramsey degrees, under the (Generalized) Continuum Hypothesis the ultraproduct has finite big Ramsey degrees for internal colorings. The necessity of restricting to internal colorings is demonstrated by the example of the ultraproduct of finite linear orders. Under CH, this ultraproduct L⁎ has, as a spine, η1, an uncountable analogue of the order type of rationals η. Finite big Ramsey degrees for η were exactly calculated by Devlin in [5]. It is immediate from [39] that η1 fails to have finite big Ramsey degrees. Moreover, we extend Devlin's coloring to η1 to show that it witnesses big Ramsey degrees of finite tuples in η on every copy of η in η1, and consequently in L⁎. This work gives additional confirmation that ultraproducts are a suitable environment for studying Ramsey properties of finite and infinite structures.

Abstract A wide Aronszajn tree is a tree of size and height $\omega _{1}$ with no uncountable branches. We prove that under $MA(\omega _{1}\!)$ there is no wide Aronszajn tree which is universal under weak embeddings. This solves an open question of Mekler and Väänänen from 1994. We also prove that under $MA(\omega _{1}\!)$ , every wide Aronszajn tree weakly embeds in an Aronszajn tree, which combined with a result of Todorčević from 2007, gives that under $MA(\omega _{1}\!)$ every wide Aronszajn tree embeds into a Lipschitz tree or a coherent tree. We also prove that under $MA(\omega _{1}\!)$ there is no wide Aronszajn tree which weakly embeds all Aronszajn trees, improving the result in the first paragraph as well as a result of Todorčević from 2007 who proved that under $MA(\omega _{1}\!)$ there are no universal Aronszajn trees.

We prove that it is consistent that $\aleph_\omega$ is strong limit, $2^{\aleph_\omega}$ is large and the universality number for graphs on $\aleph_{\omega+1}$ is small. The proof uses Prikry forcing with interleaved collapsing.

Abstract We investigate strictly positive finitely additive measures on Boolean algebras and strictly positive Radon measures on compact zerodimensional spaces. The motivation is to find a combinatorial characterisation of Boolean algebras which carry a strictly positive finitely additive finite measure with some additional properties, such as separability or nonatomicity. A possible consistent characterisation for an algebra to carry a separable strictly positive measure was suggested by Talagrand in 1980, which is that the Stone space K of the algebra satisfies that its space M(K) of measures is weakly separable, equivalently that C(K) embeds into l∞. We show that there is a ZFC example of a Boolean algebra (so of a compact space) which satisfies this condition and does not support a separable strictly positive measure. However, we use this property as a tool in a proof which shows that under MA + ¬ CH every atomless ccc Boolean algebra of size < c carries a nonatomic strictly positive measure. Examples are given to show that this result does not hold in ZFC. Finally, we obtain a characterisation of Boolean algebras that carry a strictly positive nonatomic measure in terms of a chain condition, and we draw the conclusion that under MA + ¬ CH every atomless ccc Boolean algebra satisfies this stronger chain condition.

Abstract We prove consistent, assuming there is a supercompact cardinal, that there is a singular strong limit cardinalμ, of cofinalityω, such that everyμ+-chromatic graphXonμ+has an edge colouringcofXintoμcolours for which every vertex colouringgofXinto at mostμmany colours has ag-colour class on whichctakes every value. The paper also contains some generalisations of the above statement in whichμ+is replaced by other cardinals >μ.

Abstract The paper is concerned with the existence of a universal graph at the successor of a strong limit singular μ of cofinality ℵ0. Starting from the assumption of the existence of a supercompact cardinal, a model is built in which for some such μ there are μ++ graphs on μ+ that taken jointly are universal for the graphs on μ+, while . The paper also addresses the general problem of obtaining a framework for consistency results at the successor of a singular strong limit starting from the assumption that a supercompact cardinal κ exists. The result on the existence of universal graphs is obtained as a specific application of a more general method.

Abstract We consider various versions of the ♣ principle. This principle is a known consequence of ◊. It is well known that ◊ is not sensitive to minor changes in its definition, e.g., changing the guessing requirement form “guessing exactly” to “guessing modulo a finite set”. We show however, that this is not true for ♣. We consider some other variants of ♣ as well.