Explicit Witnesses at Every Gap of the Depth Filtration of $β\mathbb{N}$

Source abstract

Let $Σ_{1} = \mathbb{N}^*$ and $Σ_{k+1} = \overline{\mathbb{N}^* + Σ_{k}}$ be the cumulative depth filtration of $β\mathbb{N}$, the analogue for $(\mathbb{N},+)$ of a chain of closed ideals that Protasov and Protasova studied for discrete groups, where strict descent follows from a theorem of Lutsenko and Protasov. For every $k$ we give an explicit set whose closure meets $Σ_{k}$ but not $Σ_{k+1}$. Fix the doubly exponential sequence $e_{n} = 2^{2^{n}}$, partition it into $k$ subsequences $E_{0}, \dots, E_{k-1}$ by the residue of the index modulo $k$, and set $A_{k} = E_{0} + \cdots + E_{k-1}$. We prove that any sum $q_{0} + \cdots + q_{k-1}$ of free ultrafilters with $E_{t} \in q_{t}$ lies in $Σ_{k} \setminus Σ_{k+1}$. The engine is a master lemma, proved by induction on $j$: if a sum $F_{1} + \cdots + F_{j}$ of subsequences of $\{e_{n}\}$ with pairwise disjoint index sets belongs to a free ultrafilter $s$, then $s \notin Σ_{j+1}$. The proof rests on a single rigidity of the doubly exponential sequence: a fixed difference forces the largest index in any shift-intersection, once it is large, to cancel within its own subsequence, which makes every shift-intersection descend by at least one level. The same witnesses lie in the gaps of the pure filtration.