A guessing principle from a Souslin tree, with applications to topology

Abstract

We introduce a new combinatorial principle which we call $\clubsuit_{AD}$. This principle asserts the existence of a certain multi-ladder system with guessing and almost-disjointness features, and is shown to be sufficient for carrying out de Caux type constructions of topological spaces. Our main result states that strong instances of $\clubsuit_{AD}$ follow from the existence of a Souslin tree. It is also shown that the weakest instance of $\clubsuit_{AD}$ does not follow from the existence of an almost Souslin tree. As an application, we obtain a simple, de Caux type proof of Rudin's result that if there is a Souslin tree, then there is an $S$-space which is Dowker.