On critical cardinalities related to $Q$-sets

Abstract

In this note we collect some known information and prove new results about the small uncountable cardinal $\mathfrak q_0$. The cardinal $\mathfrak q_0$ is defined as the smallest cardinality $|A|$ of a subset $A\subset \mathbb R$ which is not a $Q$-set (a subspace $A\subset\mathbb R$ is called a $Q$-set if each subset $B\subset A$ is of type $F_\sigma$ in $A$). We present a simple proof of a folklore fact that $\mathfrak p\le\mathfrak q_0\le\min\{\mathfrak b,\mathrm{non}(\mathcal N),\log(\mathfrak c^+)\}$, and also establish the consistency of a number of strict inequalities between the cardinal $\mathfrak q_0$ and other standard small uncountable cardinals. This is done by combining some known forcing results. A new result of the paper is the consistency of $\mathfrak{p} < \mathfrak{lr} < \mathfrak{q}_0$, where $\mathfrak{lr}$ denotes the linear refinement number. Another new result is the upper bound $\mathfrak q_0\le\mathrm{non}(\mathcal I)$ holding for any $\mathfrak q_0$-flexible cccc $\sigma$-ideal $\mathcal I$ on $\mathbb R$.