We prove that in all Mitchell-Steel core models, □ κ holds for all κ. (See Theorem 2.). From this we obtain new consistency strength lower bounds for the failure of □ κ if κ is either singular and countably closed, weakly compact, or measurable. (Corallaries 5, 8, and 9.) Jensen introduced a large cardinal property that we call subcompactness; it lies between superstrength and supercompactness in the large cardinal hierarchy. We prove that in all Jensen core models, □ κ holds (...) iff κ is not subcompact. (See Theorem 15; the only if direction is essentially due to Jensen.). (shrink)

We prove that the statement "For every pair A, B, stationary subsets of ω 2 , composed of points of cofinality ω, there exists an ordinal α such that both A ∩ α and $B \bigcap \alpha$ are stationary subsets of α" is equiconsistent with the existence of weakly compact cardinal. (This completes results of Baumgartner and Harrington and Shelah.) We also prove, assuming the existence of infinitely many supercompact cardinals, the statement "Every stationary subset of ω ω + 1 (...) has a stationary initial segment.". (shrink)

REF is the statement that every stationary subset of a cardinal reflects, unless it fails to do so for a trivial reason. The main theorem, presented in Sect. 0, is that under suitable assumptions it is consistent that REF and there is a κ which is κ+n -supercompact. The main concepts defined in Sect. 1 are PT, which is a certain statement about the existence of transversals, and the “bad” stationary set. It is shown that supercompactness (and even the failure (...) of PT) implies the existence of non-reflecting stationary sets. E.g., if REF then for manyλ ⌝ PT(λ, ℵ1). In Sect. 2 it is shown that Easton-support iteration of suitable Levy collapses yield a universe with REF if for every singular λ which is a limit of supercompacts the bad stationary set concentrates on the “right” cofinalities. In Sect. 3 the use of oracle c.c. (and oracle proper—see [Sh-b, Chap. IV] and [Sh 100, Sect. 4]) is adapted to replacing the diamond by the Laver diamond. Using this, a universe as needed in Sect. 2 is forced, where one starts, and ends, with a universe with a proper class of supercompacts. In Sect. 4 bad sets are handled in ZFC. For a regular λ {δ<+ : cfδ<λ} is good. It is proved in ZFC that ifλ=cfλ>ℵ1 then {α<+ : cfα<λ} is the union of λ sets on which there are squares. (shrink)