By the Cantor-Bendixson theorem, subtrees of the binary tree on $\omega$ satisfy a dichotomy - either the tree has countably many branches or there is a perfect subtree (and in particular, the tree has continuum manybranches, regardless of the size of the continuum). We generalize this to arbitrary regular cardinals $\kappa$ and ask whether every $\kappa$-tree with more than $\kappa$ branches has a perfect subset. From large cardinals, this statement isconsistent at a weakly compact cardinal $\kappa$. We show using stacking mice that the existence of a non-domestic mouse (which yields a model with a proper class of Woodin cardinals and strong cardinals) is a lower bound. Moreover, we study variants of this statement involving sealed trees, i.e. trees with the property that their set of branches cannot be changed by certain forcings, and obtain lower bounds for these as well. This is joint work with Yair Hayut.[-]

The combinatorics of successors of singular cardinals presents a number of interesting open problems. We discuss the interactions at successors of singular cardinals of two strong combinatorial properties, the stationary set reflection and the tree property. Assuming the consistency of infinitely many supercompact cardinals, we force a model in which both the stationary set reflection and the tree property hold at $\aleph_{\omega^2+1}$. Moreover, we prove that the two principles are independent at this cardinal, indeed assuming the consistency of infinitely many supercompact cardinals it is possible to force a model in which the stationary set reflection holds, but the tree property fails at $\aleph_{\omega^2+1}$. This is a joint work with Menachem Magidor.
Keywords : forcing - large cardinals - successors of singular cardinals - stationary reflection - tree property[-]

It is well-known that the statement "all $\aleph_1$-Aronszajn trees are special'' is consistent with ZFC (Baumgartner, Malitz, and Reinhardt), and even with ZFC+GCH (Jensen). In contrast, Ben-David and Shelah proved that, assuming GCH, for every singular cardinal $\lambda$: if there exists a $\lambda^+$-Aronszajn tree, then there exists a non-special one. Furthermore:
Theorem (Ben-David and Shelah, 1986) Assume GCH and that $\lambda$ is singular cardinal. If there exists a special $\lambda^+$-Aronszajn tree, then there exists a $\lambda$-distributive $\lambda^+$-Aronszajn tree.
This suggests that following stronger statement:
Conjecture. Assume GCH and that $\lambda$ is singular cardinal.
If there exists a $\lambda^+$-Aronszajn tree,
then there exists a $\lambda$-distributive $\lambda^+$-Aronszajn tree.

The assumption that there exists a $\lambda^+$-Aronszajn tree is a very mild square-like hypothesis (that is, $\square(\lambda^+,\lambda)$).
In order to bloom a $\lambda$-distributive tree from it, there is a need for a toolbox, each tool taking an abstract square-like sequence and producing a sequence which is slightly better than the original one.
For this, we introduce the monoid of postprocessing functions and study how it acts on the class of abstract square sequences.
We establish that, assuming GCH, the monoid contains some very powerful functions. We also prove that the monoid is closed under various mixing operations.
This allows us to prove a theorem which is just one step away from verifying the conjecture:

Theorem 1. Assume GCH and that $\lambda$ is a singular cardinal.
If $\square(\lambda^+,<\lambda)$ holds, then there exists a $\lambda$-distributive $\lambda^+$-Aronszajn tree.
Another proof, involving a 5-steps chain of applications of postprocessing functions, is of the following theorem.

Theorem 2. Assume GCH. If $\lambda$ is a singular cardinal and $\square(\lambda^+)$ holds, then there exists a $\lambda^+$-Souslin tree which is coherent mod finite.

This is joint work with Ari Brodsky. See: http://assafrinot.com/paper/29[-]

The productivity of the $\kappa $-chain condition, where $\kappa $ is a regular, uncountable cardinal, has been the focus of a great deal of set-theoretic research. In the 1970's, consistent examples of $kappa-cc$ posets whose squares are not $\kappa-cc$ were constructed by Laver, Galvin, Roitman and Fleissner. Later, ZFC examples were constructed by Todorcevic, Shelah, and others. The most difficult case, that in which $\kappa = \aleph{_2}$, was resolved by Shelah in 1997.
In the first part of this talk, we shall present analogous results regarding the infinite productivity of chain conditions stronger than $\kappa-cc$. In particular, for any successor cardinal $\kappa$, we produce a ZFC example of a poset with precaliber $\kappa$ whose $\omega ^{th}$ power is not $\kappa-cc$. To do so, we introduce and study the principle $U(\kappa , \mu , \theta , \chi )$ asserting the existence of a coloring $c:\left [ \kappa \right ]^{2}\rightarrow \theta $ satisfying a strong unboundedness condition.
In the second part of this talk, we shall introduce and study a new cardinal invariant $\chi \left ( \kappa \right )$ for a regular uncountable cardinal $\kappa$ . For inaccessible $\kappa$, $\chi \left ( \kappa \right )$ may be seen as a measure of how far away $\kappa$ is from being weakly compact. We shall prove that if $\chi \left ( \kappa \right )> 1$, then $\chi \left ( \kappa \right )=max(Cspec(\kappa ))$, where:
(1) Cspec$(\kappa)$ := {$\chi (\vec{C})\mid \vec{C}$ is a sequence over $\kappa$} $\setminus \omega$, and
(2) $\chi \left ( \vec{C} \right )$ is the least cardinal $\chi \leq \kappa $ such that there exist $\Delta\in\left [ \kappa \right ]^{\kappa }$ and
b : $\kappa \rightarrow \left [ \kappa \right ]^{\chi }$ with $\Delta \cap \alpha \subseteq \cup _{\beta \in b(\alpha )}C_{\beta }$ for every $\alpha < \kappa$.
We shall also prove that if $\chi (\kappa )=1$, then $\kappa$ is greatly Mahlo, prove the consistency (modulo the existence of a supercompact) of $\chi (\aleph_{\omega +1})=\aleph_{0}$, and carry a systematic study of the effect of square principles on the $C$-sequence spectrum.
In the last part of this talk, we shall unveil an unexpected connection between the two principles discussed in the previous parts, proving that, for infinite regular cardinals $\theta< \kappa ,\theta \in Cspec(\kappa )$ if there is a closed witness to $U_{(\kappa ,\kappa ,\theta ,\theta )}$.
This is joint work with Chris Lambie-Hanson.[-]

We report on a joint work in progress with Rahman Mohammadpour in which we study the problem of the possible existence of a universal tree under weak embeddings in the classes of $\aleph_{2}$-Aronszajn and wide $\aleph_{2}$-Aronszajn trees. This problem is more complex than previously thought, in particular it seems not to be resolved under ShFA $+$ CH using the technology of weakly Lipshitz trees. We show that under CH, for a given $\aleph_{2}$-Aronszajn tree $\mathrm{T}$ without a weak ascent path, there is an $\aleph_{2^{-\mathrm{C}\mathrm{C}}}$ countably closed forcing forcing which specialises $\mathrm{T}$ and adds an $\aleph_{2}$-Aronszajn tree which does not embed into T. One cannot however apply the ShFA to this forcing.[-]