Topological Ramsey numbers and countable ordinals

We study the topological version of the partition calculus in the setting of countable ordinals. Let $alpha$ and $beta$ be ordinals and let $k$ be a positive integer. We write $betato_{top}(alpha,k)^2$ to mean that, for every red-blue coloring of the collection of 2-sized subsets of $beta$, there is either a red-homogeneous set homeomorphic to $alpha$ or a blue-homogeneous set of size $k$. The least such $beta$ is the topological Ramsey number $R^{top}(alpha,k)$. We prove a topological version of the ErdH{o}s-Milner theorem, namely that $R^{top}(alpha,k)$ is countable whenever $alpha$ is countable. More precisely, we prove that $R^{top}(omega^{omega^beta},k+1)leqomega^{omega^{betacdot k}}$ for all countable ordinals $beta$ and finite $k$. Our proof is modeled on a new easy proof of a weak version of the ErdH{o}s-Milner theorem that may be of independent interest. We also provide more careful upper bounds for certain small values of $alpha$, proving among other results that $R^{top}(omega+1,k+1)=omega^k+1$, $R^{top}(alpha,k)< omega^omega$ whenever $alpha<omega^2$, $R^{top}(omega^2,k)leqomega^omega$ and $R^{top}(omega^2+1,k+2)leqomega^{omegacdot k}+1$ for all finite $k$. Our computations use a variety of techniques, including a topological pigeonhole principle for ordinals, considerations of a tree ordering based on the Cantor normal form of ordinals, and some ultrafilter arguments.