Selection principles in mathematics: A milestone of open problems

We survey some of the major open problems involving selection principles, diagonalizations, and covering properties in topology and infinite combinatorics. Background details, definitions and motivations are also provided.Comment: Small update

Hereditary topological diagonalizations and the Menger-Hurewicz Conjectures

We consider the question, which of the major classes defined by topological diagonalizations of open or Borel covers is hereditary. Many of the classes in the open case are not hereditary already in ZFC, and none of them is provably hereditary. This is contrasted with the Borel case, where some of the classes are provably hereditary. Two of the examples are counter-examples of sizes d$ and b, respectively, to the Menger and Hurewicz Conjectures, and one of them answers a question of Steprans on perfectly meager sets

A semifilter approach to selection principles

We develop the semifilter approach to the classical Menger and Hurewicz covering properties and show that the small cardinal g is a lower bound of the additivity number of the family of Menger subspaces of the Baire space, and under u< g every subset X of the real line with the property Split(Lambda,Lambda) is Hurewicz.Comment: LaTeX 2e, 15 pages, submitted to Comment. Math. Univ. Carolina

Some new directions in infinite-combinatorial topology

We give a light introduction to selection principles in topology, a young subfield of infinite-combinatorial topology. Emphasis is put on the modern approach to the problems it deals with. Recent results are described, and open problems are stated. Some results which do not appear elsewhere are also included, with proofs.Comment: Small update

Topological diagonalizations and Hausdorff dimension

The Hausdorff dimension of a product XxY can be strictly greater than that of Y, even when the Hausdorff dimension of X is zero. But when X is countable, the Hausdorff dimensions of Y and XxY are the same. Diagonalizations of covers define a natural hierarchy of properties which are weaker than ``being countable'' and stronger than ``having Hausdorff dimension zero''. Fremlin asked whether it is enough for X to have the strongest property in this hierarchy (namely, being a gamma-set) in order to assure that the Hausdorff dimensions of Y and XxY are the same. We give a negative answer: Assuming CH, there exists a gamma-set of reals X and a set of reals Y with Hausdorff dimension zero, such that the Hausdorff dimension of X+Y (a Lipschitz image of XxY) is maximal, that is, 1. However, we show that for the notion of a_strong_ gamma-set the answer is positive. Some related problems remain open.Comment: Small update

Selective covering properties of product spaces

We study the preservation of selective covering properties, including classic ones introduced by Menger, Hurewicz, Rothberger, Gerlits and Nagy, and others, under products with some major families of concentrated sets of reals. Our methods include the projection method introduced by the authors in an earlier work, as well as several new methods. Some special consequences of our main results are (definitions provided in the paper): \be \item Every product of a concentrated space with a Hurewicz \sone(\Ga,\Op) space satisfies \sone(\Ga,\Op). On the other hand, assuming \CH{}, for each Sierpi\'nski set $S$ there is a Luzin set $L$ such that L\x S can be mapped onto the real line by a Borel function. \item Assuming Semifilter Trichotomy, every concentrated space is productively Menger and productively Rothberger. \item Every scale set is productively Hurewicz, productively Menger, productively Scheepers, and productively Gerlits--Nagy. \item Assuming \fd=\aleph_1, every productively Lindel\"of space is productively Hurewicz, productively Menger, and productively Scheepers. \ee A notorious open problem asks whether the additivity of Rothberger's property may be strictly greater than \add(\cN), the additivity of the ideal of Lebesgue-null sets of reals. We obtain a positive answer, modulo the consistency of Semifilter Trichotomy with \add(\cN)<\cov(\cM). Our results improve upon and unify a number of results, established earlier by many authors.Comment: Submitted for publicatio