Composite Ramsey theorems via trees

Abstract

We prove a theorem ensuring that the compositions of certain Ramsey families are still Ramsey. As an application, we show that in any finite coloring of $\mathbb{N}$ there is an infinite set $A$ and an as large as desired finite set $B$ with $(A+B)\cup (AB)$ monochromatic, answering a question from a recent paper of Kra, Moreira, Richter, and Robertson. In fact, we prove an iterated version of this result that also generalizes a Ramsey theorem of Bergelson and Moreira that was previously only known to hold for fields. Our main new technique is an extension of the color focusing method that involves trees rather than sequences.