Some of the combinatorics related to Michael's problem

We present some new methods for constructing a Michael space, a regular Lindelof space which has a non-Lindelof product with the space of irrationals. The central result is a combinatorial statement about the irrationals which is a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of a certain class of Michael spaces. We also show that there are Michael spaces assuming partial derivative = cov(M) and that it is consistent with cov(M) < b < partial derivative that there is a Michael space. The influence of Cohen reals on Michael's problem is discussed as well. Finally, we present an example of a Michael space of weight less than b under the assumption that b = partial derivative = cov(M) = aleph(omega+1) (whose product with the irrationals is necessarily linearly Lindelof).