We prove that a combinatorial consequence of the negation of the PCF conjecture for intervals, involving free subsets relative to set mappings, is not implied by even the strongest known large cardinal axiom.

We prove a compactness theorem for pseudopower operations of the form \}\) where \\le {{\,\mathrm{cf}\,}}\). Our main tool is a result that has Shelah’s cov versus pp Theorem as a consequence. We also show that the failure of compactness in other situations has significant consequences for pcf theory, in particular, implying the existence of a progressive set A of regular cardinals for which \\) has an inaccessible accumulation point.

We strengthen the revised GCH theorem by showing, e.g., that for , for all but finitely many regular κ ω implies that the diamond holds on λ when restricted to cofinality κ for all but finitely many .We strengthen previous results on the black box and the middle diamond: previously it was established that these principles hold on for sufficiently large n; here we succeed in replacing a sufficiently large n with a sufficiently large n.The main theorem, concerning the accessibility (...) of λ on cofinality κ, Theorem 3.1, implies as a special case that for every regular λ>ω, for some κ<ω, we can find a sequence such that , , and we can fix a finite set of “exceptional” regular cardinals θ<ω so that if Aλ satisfies A<ω, there is a pair-coloring so that for every -monochromatic BA with no last element, letting δ:=supB it holds that —provided that is not one of the finitely many “exceptional” members of. (shrink)