In this paper we aim to compare Kurepa trees and Aronszajn trees. Moreover,
we analyze the affect of large cardinal assumptions on this comparison. Using
the the method of walks on ordinals, we will show it is consistent with ZFC
that there is a Kurepa tree and every Kurepa tree contains a Souslin subtree,
if there is an inaccessible cardinal. This is stronger than Komjath's theorem
that asserts the same consistency from two inaccessible cardinals. We will show
that our large cardinal assumption is optimal, i.e. if every Kurepa tree has an
Aronszajn subtree then Ο2β is inaccessible in the constructible universe
\textsc{L}. Moreover, we prove it is consistent with ZFC that there is a Kurepa
tree T such that if UβT is a Kurepa tree with the inherited order
from T, then U has an Aronszajn subtree. This theorem uses no large
cardinal assumption. Our last theorem immediately implies the following: assume
MAΟ2ββ holds and Ο2β is not a Mahlo cardinal in
\textsc{L}. Then there is a Kurepa tree with the property that every Kurepa
subset has an Aronszajn subtree. Our work entails proving a new lemma about
Todorcevic's Ο function which might be useful in other contexts.Comment: 20 page