On the bounding, splitting, and distributivity numbers

Abstract: The cardinal invariants $ \mathfrak h, \mathfrak b, \mathfrak s$ of $\mathcal P (\omega)$ are known to satisfy that $\omega_1 \leq \mathfrak h \leq\min{\mathfrak b, \mathfrak s}$. We prove that all inequalities can be strict. We also introduce a new upper bound for $\mathfrak h$ and show that it can be less than $\mathfrak s$. The key method is to utilize finite support matrix iterations of ccc posets following \cite{BlassShelah}.