Covering versus partitioning with Polish spaces

Abstract

Given a completely metrizable space $X$, let $\mathfrak{par}(X)$ denote the smallest possible size of a partition of $X$ into Polish spaces, and $\mathfrak{cov}(X)$ the smallest possible size of a covering of $X$ with Polish spaces. Observe that $\mathfrak{cov}(X) \leq \mathfrak{par}(X)$ for every $X$, because every partition of $X$ is also a covering. We prove it is consistent relative to a huge cardinal that the strict inequality $\mathfrak{cov}(X) < \mathfrak{par}(X)$ can hold for some completely metrizable space $X$. We also prove that using large cardinals is necessary for obtaining this strict inequality, because if $\mathfrak{cov}(X) < \mathfrak{par}(X)$ for any completely metrizable $X$, then $0^\dagger$ exists.