It is a theorem of Rowbottom [12] that ifκis measurable andIis a normal prime ideal onκ, then for eachλ<κ,In this paper a natural structural property of ideals, distributivity, is considered and shown to be related to this and other ideal theoretic partition relations.The set theoretical terminology is standard and background results on the theory of ideals may be found in [5] and [8]. Throughoutκwill denote an uncountable regular cardinal, andIa proper, nonprincipal,κ-complete ideal onκ.NSκis the ideal of nonstationary subsets ofκ, andIκ= (...) {X⊆κ∣∣X∣<κ}. IfA∈I+ −I), then anI-partitionofAis a maximal collectionW⊆,P ∩I+so thatX∩ Y ∈IwheneverX, Y∈W, X≠Y. TheI-partitionWis said to be disjoint if distinct members ofWare disjoint, and in this case, fordenotes the unique member ofWcontainingξ. A sequence 〈Wα∣α<η} ofI-partitions ofAis said to be decreasing if wheneverα<β<ηandX∈Wβthere is aY∈Wαsuch thatX⊆Y.. (shrink)

We show that under $\mathsf {BMM}$ and “there exists a Woodin cardinal, $"$ the nonstationary ideal on $\omega _1$ cannot be defined by a $\Pi _1$ formula with parameter $A \subset \omega _1$. We show that the same conclusion holds under the assumption of Woodin’s $(\ast )$ -axiom. We further show that there are universes where $\mathsf {BPFA}$ holds and $\text {NS}_{\omega _1}$ is $\Pi _1(\{\omega _1\})$ -definable. Lastly we show that if the canonical inner model with one Woodin cardinal (...) $M_1$ exists, there is a generic extension of $M_1$ in which $\text {NS}_{\omega _1}$ is saturated and $\Pi _1(\{ \omega _1\} )$ -definable, and $\mathsf {MA_{\omega _1}}$ holds. (shrink)

We prove, in ZFC alone, some new results on regularity and decomposability of ultrafilters; among them: If m ≥ 1 and the ultrafilter D is , equation imagem)-regular, then D is κ -decomposable for some κ with λ ≤ κ ≤ 2λ ). If λ is a strong limit cardinal and D is , equation imagem)-regular, then either D is -regular or there are arbitrarily large κ < λ for which D is κ -decomposable ). Suppose that λ is singular, (...) λ < κ, cf κ ≠ cf λ and D is -regular. Then: D is either -regular, or -regular for some λ' < λ . If κ is regular, then D is either -regular, or -regular for every κ' < κ . If either λ is a strong limit cardinal and λ<λ < 2κ, or λ<λ < κ, then D is either λ -decomposable, or -regular for some λ' < λ . If λ is singular, D is -regular and there are arbitrarily large ν < λ for which D is ν -decomposable, then D is κ -decomposable for some κ with λ ≤ κ ≤ λ<μ . D × D' is -regular if and only if there is a ν such that D is -regular and D' is -regular for all ν∼ < ν .We also list some problems, and furnish applications to topological spaces and to extended logics. (shrink)