This paper investigates properties of \(\sigma \) -closed forcings which generate ultrafilters satisfying weak partition relations. The Ramsey degree of an ultrafilter \({\mathcal {U}}\) for _n_-tuples, denoted \(t({\mathcal {U}},n)\), is the smallest number _t_ such that given any \(l\ge 2\) and coloring \(c:[\omega ]^n\rightarrow l\), there is a member \(X\in {\mathcal {U}}\) such that the restriction of _c_ to \([X]^n\) has no more than _t_ colors. Many well-known \(\sigma \) -closed forcings are known to generate ultrafilters with finite Ramsey degrees, (...) but finding the precise degrees can sometimes prove elusive or quite involved, at best. In this paper, we utilize methods of topological Ramsey spaces to calculate Ramsey degrees of several classes of ultrafilters generated by \(\sigma \) -closed forcings. These include a hierarchy of forcings due to Laflamme which generate weakly Ramsey and weaker rapid p-points, forcings of Baumgartner and Taylor and of Blass and generalizations, and the collection of non-p-points generated by the forcings \({\mathcal {P}}(\omega ^k)/\mathrm {Fin}^{\otimes k}\). We provide a general approach to calculating the Ramsey degrees of these ultrafilters, obtaining new results as well as streamlined proofs of previously known results. In the second half of the paper, we calculate pseudointersection and tower numbers for these \(\sigma \) -closed forcings and their relationships with the classical pseudointersection number \({\mathfrak {p}}\). (shrink)

We prove versions of the Dual Ramsey Theorem and the Dual Ellentuck Theorem for families of partitions which are defined in terms of games.

We investigate splitting number and reaping number for the structure (ω) ω of infinite partitions of ω. We prove that ${\mathfrak{r}_{d}\leq\mathsf{non}(\mathcal{M}),\mathsf{non}(\mathcal{N}),\mathfrak{d}}$ and ${\mathfrak{s}_{d}\geq\mathfrak{b}}$ . We also show the consistency results ${\mathfrak{r}_{d} > \mathfrak{b}, \mathfrak{s}_{d} < \mathfrak{d}, \mathfrak{s}_{d} < \mathfrak{r}, \mathfrak{r}_{d} < \mathsf{add}(\mathcal{M})}$ and ${\mathfrak{s}_{d} > \mathsf{cof}(\mathcal{M})}$ . To prove the consistency ${\mathfrak{r}_{d} < \mathsf{add}(\mathcal{M})}$ and ${\mathfrak{s}_{d} < \mathsf{cof}(\mathcal{M})}$ we introduce new cardinal invariants ${\mathfrak{r}_{pair}}$ and ${\mathfrak{s}_{pair}}$ . We also study the relation between ${\mathfrak{r}_{pair}, \mathfrak{s}_{pair}}$ and other cardinal invariants. We show (...) that ${\mathsf{cov}(\mathcal{M}),\mathsf{cov}(\mathcal{N})\leq\mathfrak{r}_{pair}\leq\mathfrak{s}_{d},\ma thfrak{r}}$ and ${\mathfrak{s}\leq\mathfrak{s}_{pair}\leq\mathsf{non}(\mathcal{M}),\mathsf{non}(\mathcal{N})}$. (shrink)

We continue [21] and study partition numbers of partial orderings which are related to /fin. In particular, we investigate Pf, be the suborder of /fin)ω containing only filtered elements, the Mathias partial order M, and , ω the lattice of partitions of ω, respectively. We show that Solomon's inequality holds for M and that it consistently fails for Pf. We show that the partition number of is C. We also show that consistently the distributivity number of ω is smaller than (...) the distributivity number of /fin. We also investigate partitions of a Polish space into closed sets. We show that such a partition either is countable or has size at least D, where D is the dominating number. We also show that the existence of a dominating family of size 1 does not imply that a Polish space can be partitioned into 1 many closed sets. (shrink)

We investigate some notions of splitting families and estimate sizes of the corresponding cardinal coefficients. In particular we solve a problem of P. Simon.