A narrow system is a combinatorial object introduced by Magidor and Shelah in connection with work on the tree property at successors of singular cardinals. In analogy to the tree property, a cardinalκsatisfies thenarrow system propertyif every narrow system of heightκhas a cofinal branch. In this paper, we study connections between the narrow system property, square principles, and forcing axioms. We prove, assuming large cardinals, both that it is consistent that ℵω+1satisfies the narrow system property and$\square _{\aleph _\omega, < \aleph (...) _\omega } $holds and that it is consistent that every regular cardinal satisfies the narrow system property. We introduce natural strengthenings of classical square principles and show how they can be used to produce narrow systems with no cofinal branch. Finally, we show that the Proper Forcing Axiom implies that every narrow system of countable width has a cofinal branch but is consistent with the existence of a narrow system of width ω1with no cofinal branch. (shrink)

Assume \ is a singular limit of \ supercompact cardinals, where \ is a limit ordinal. We present two methods for arranging the tree property to hold at \ while making \ the successor of the limit of the first \ measurable cardinals. The first method is then used to get, from the same assumptions, the tree property at \ with the failure of SCH at \. This extends results of Neeman and Sinapova. The second method is also used to (...) get the tree property at the successor of an arbitrary singular cardinal, which extends some results of Magidor–Shelah, Neeman and Sinapova. (shrink)

We show that the consistency of the theory “ZF + DC + Every successor cardinal is regular + Every limit cardinal is singular + Every successor cardinal satisfies the tree property” follows from the consistency of a proper class of supercompact cardinals. This extends earlier results due to the author showing that the consistency of the theory “\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${{\rm ZF} + \neg{\rm AC}_\omega}$$\end{document} + Every successor cardinal is regular + Every limit cardinal (...) is singular + Every successor cardinal satisfies the tree property” follows from hypotheses stronger in consistency strength than a supercompact limit of supercompact cardinals. A lower bound in consistency strength is provided by a result of Busche and Schindler, who showed that the consistency of the theory “ZF + Every successor cardinal is regular + Every limit cardinal is singular + Every successor cardinal satisfies the tree property” implies the consistency of ADL(R). (shrink)

The strong tree property and ITP (also called the super tree property) are generalizations of the tree property that characterize strong compactness and supercompactness up to inaccessibility. That is, an inaccessible cardinal $\kappa $ is strongly compact if and only if the strong tree property holds at $\kappa $, and supercompact if and only if ITP holds at $\kappa $. We present several results motivated by the problem of obtaining the strong tree property and ITP at many successive cardinals simultaneously; (...) these results focus on the successors of singular cardinals. We describe a general class of forcings that will obtain the strong tree property and ITP at the successor of a singular cardinal of any cofinality. Generalizing a result of Neeman about the tree property, we show that it is consistent for ITP to hold at $\aleph _n$ for all $2 \leq n < \omega $ simultaneously with the strong tree property at $\aleph _{\omega +1}$ ; we also show that it is consistent for ITP to hold at $\aleph _n$ for all $3 < n < \omega $ and at $\aleph _{\omega +1}$ simultaneously. Finally, turning our attention to singular cardinals of uncountable cofinality, we show that it is consistent for the strong and super tree properties to hold at successors of singulars of multiple cofinalities simultaneously. (shrink)