TITLE: When are all greater cardinals sharply greater?
QUESTION [6 upvotes]: Makkai and Paré introduced the following binary relation on regular cardinals: given $\kappa$ and $\lambda$,  $\kappa \vartriangleleft \lambda$ (read, $\kappa$ is sharply less than $\lambda$) when $\kappa < \lambda$ and, for every set $X$ of cardinality $< \lambda$, the set $P_\kappa (X)$ of all subsets of $X$ of cardinality $< \kappa$ has a cofinal subset of cardinality $< \lambda$.
It is not hard to see that $\kappa \vartriangleleft \kappa^+$ for all regular cardinals $\kappa$. On the other hand, $\aleph_1$ is not sharply less than $\aleph_{\omega + 1}$, so $\vartriangleleft$ is not the same as $<$. Nonetheless, it is true that $\aleph_0 \vartriangleleft \lambda$ for every uncountable regular cardinal $\lambda$, simply because $P_{\aleph_0} (X)$ has the same cardinality as $X$ when $X$ is infinite. More generally, if for all (not necessarily regular) cardinals $\kappa' < \kappa$ and all cardinals $\lambda' < \lambda$, we have ${\lambda'}^{\kappa'} < \lambda$, then $\kappa \vartriangleleft \lambda$. In particular if $\lambda$ is an inaccessible cardinal then $\kappa \vartriangleleft \lambda$ for all regular cardinals $\kappa < \lambda$.
Question. Do there exist uncountable regular cardinals $\kappa$ such that $\kappa \vartriangleleft \lambda$ if and only if $\kappa < \lambda$? Is there a proper class of them?

REPLY [4 votes]: No.
Given regular cardinals $\kappa$ and $\lambda$, $\kappa \vartriangleleft \lambda$
iff $\kappa < \lambda$ and
$$
\operatorname{cf} ([ \mu ]^{< \kappa} , \subseteq) =
\operatorname{cov} (\mu , \kappa , \kappa) < \lambda
$$
for every cardinal $\mu$ with $\kappa \leq \mu < \lambda$.
Let $\kappa$ be any regular cardinal > $\aleph_0$. Then, let $\delta$ be the ordinal such that $\kappa = \aleph_{\delta}$.
Define $\lambda = \aleph_{\delta + \omega + 1}$.
Now,
$$
\operatorname{cov} (\aleph_{\delta + \omega} , \kappa , \kappa) \geq
$$
$$
\operatorname{cov} (\aleph_{\delta + \omega} , \aleph_{\delta + \omega} , \aleph_1) =
$$
$$
\operatorname{cov} (\aleph_{\delta + \omega} , \aleph_{\delta + \omega} , {(\operatorname{cf} (\aleph_{\delta + \omega}))}^+) \geq
$$
$$
\operatorname{cov} (\aleph_{\delta + \omega} , \aleph_{\delta + \omega} , {(\operatorname{cf} (\aleph_{\delta + \omega}))}^+ , \operatorname{cf} (\aleph_{\delta + \omega})) \geq
$$
$$
\aleph_{\delta + \omega + 1} = \lambda ,
$$
the last inequality by Fact 1 in

Andreas Liu, Bounds for covering numbers,
  The Journal of Symbolic Logic 71 (2006), 1303-1310.
  doi:10.2178/jsl/1164060456

Hence, $\kappa < \lambda$ but
$\neg (\kappa \vartriangleleft \lambda)$.