文摘
Call a set \({A \subseteq \mathbb {R}}\) paradoxical if there are disjoint \({A_0, A_1 \subseteq A}\) such that both \({A_0}\) and \({A_1}\) are equidecomposable with \({A}\) via countabbly many translations. \({X \subseteq \mathbb {R}}\) is hereditarily nonparadoxical if no uncountable subset of \({X}\) is paradoxical. Penconek raised the question if every hereditarily nonparadoxical set \({X \subseteq \mathbb {R}}\) is the union of countably many sets, each omitting nontrivial solutions of \({x - y = z - t}\). Nowik showed that the answer is ‘yes’, as long as \({|X| \leq \aleph_\omega}\). Here we show that consistently there exists a counterexample of cardinality \({\aleph_{\omega+1}}\) and it is also consistent that the continuum is arbitrarily large and Penconek’s statement holds for any \({X}\). Keywords Paradoxical decompositions Combinatorial set theory Forcing