Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 February 2010
In a recent article [2] D. G. Larman and C. A. Rogers proved the following two results in Descriptive Set Theory (where R = the space of real numbers): (1) There is no analytic set in the plane R2, which is universal for the countable closed subsets of R; (2) there is no Borel set in R2, which is universal for the countable Gδ subsets of R. Recall that, if b is a class of subsets of a space X, a set U ⊆ X × X is called universal for b if (a) for each x ∈ X, Ux = def {y : (x, y) ∈ U} ∈ b, and (b) for each A ∈ b there is an x such that A = Ux. (Larman and Rogers have also shown that in both cases coanalytic universal sets exist.)