# Property of Baire

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A subset ${\displaystyle A}$ of a topological space ${\displaystyle X}$ has the property of Baire (Baire property, named after René-Louis Baire), or is called an almost open set, if it differs from an open set by a meager set; that is, if there is an open set ${\displaystyle U\subseteq X}$ such that ${\displaystyle A{\mathbin {\Delta }}U}$ is meager (where Δ denotes the symmetric difference).[1]

The family of sets with the property of Baire forms a σ-algebra. That is, the complement of an almost open set is almost open, and any countable union or intersection of almost open sets is again almost open.[1] Since every open set is almost open (the empty set is meager), it follows that every Borel set is almost open.

If a subset of a Polish space has the property of Baire, then its corresponding Banach–Mazur game is determined. The converse does not hold; however, if every game in a given adequate pointclass Γ is determined, then every set in Γ has the property of Baire. Therefore, it follows from projective determinacy, which in turn follows from sufficient large cardinals, that every projective set (in a Polish space) has the property of Baire.[2]

It follows from the axiom of choice that there are sets of reals without the property of Baire. In particular, the Vitali set does not have the property of Baire.[3] Already weaker versions of choice are sufficient: the Boolean prime ideal theorem implies that there is a nonprincipal ultrafilter on the set of natural numbers; each such ultrafilter induces, via binary representations of reals, a set of reals without the Baire property.[4]

## References

1. ^ a b Oxtoby, John C. (1980), "4. The Property of Baire", Measure and Category, Graduate Texts in Mathematics, 2 (2nd ed.), Springer-Verlag, pp. 19–21, ISBN 978-0-387-90508-2.
2. ^ Becker, Howard; Kechris, Alexander S. (1996), The descriptive set theory of Polish group actions, London Mathematical Society Lecture Note Series, 232, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p. 69, doi:10.1017/CBO9780511735264, ISBN 0-521-57605-9, MR 1425877.
3. ^ Oxtoby (1980), p. 22.
4. ^ Blass, Andreas (2010), "Ultrafilters and set theory", Ultrafilters across mathematics, Contemporary Mathematics, 530, Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society, pp. 49–71, doi:10.1090/conm/530/10440, MR 2757533. See in particular p. 64.