On the strength of Hausdorff's gap condition

Abstract

Hausdorff's gap condition was satisfied by his original 1936 construction of an (omega-1,omega-1) gap in P(N)/Fin. We solve an open problem in determining whether Hausdorff's condition is actually stronger than the more modern indestructibility condition, by constructing an indestructible (omega-1,omega-1) gap not equivalent to any gap satisfying Hausdorff's condition, from uncountably many random reals.