Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 March 2014
A family A ⊆ (ω) is called countably splitting if for every countable F ⊆ [ω]ω, some element of A splits every member of F. We define a notion of a splitting tree, by means of which we prove that every analytic countably splitting family contains a closed countably splitting family. An application of this notion solves a problem of Blass. On the other hand we show that there exists an Fσ splitting family that does not contain a closed splitting family.