An elementary approach to ‘Algebra ∩ topology = compactness’

Herrlich and Strecker characterized the category Comp ₂ of compact Hausdorff spaces as the only nontrivial full epireflective subcategory in the category Top ₂ of all Hausdorff spaces that is concretely isomorphic to a variety in the sense of universal algebra including infinitary operations. The original proof of this result requires Noble's theorem, i.e. a space is compact Hausdorff iff every of its powers is normal, which is far from being elementary. Likewise, Petz' characterization of the class of compact Hausdorff spaces as the only nontrivial epireflective subcategory of Top ₂, which is closed under dense extensions (= epimorphisms in Top ₂) and strictly contained in Top ₂ is based on a result by Kattov stating that a space is compact Hausdorff iff its every closed subspace is H-closed. This note offers an elementary approach for both, instead.Presented at the European Colloquium of Category Theory, Tours, France, 25–31 July 1994.     

The Cartesian product of a compactum and a space is a bifunctor in shape

In 2003 the author has associated with every cofinite inverse system of compact Hausdorff spaces X with limit X and every simplicial complex K (possibly infinite) with geometric realization P=|K| a resolution R(X,K) of X×P, which consists of paracompact spaces. If X consists of compact polyhedra, then R(X,K) consists of spaces having the homotopy type of polyhedra. In two subsequent papers the author proved that R(X,K) is a covariant functor in each of its variables X and K. In the present paper it is proved that R(X,K) is a bifunctor. Using this result, it is proved that the Cartesian product X×Z of a compact Hausdorff space X and a topological space Z is a bifunctor SSh(Cpt)×Sh(Top)→Sh(Top) from the product category of the strong shape category of compact Hausdorff spaces SSh(Cpt) and the shape category Sh(Top) of topological spaces to the category Sh(Top). This holds in spite of the fact that X×Z need not be a direct product in Sh(Top).     

More on upper bicompletion-true functorial quasi-uniformities

Let T:QU₀→Top₀ denote the usual forgetful functor from the category of quasi-uniform T₀-spaces to that of the topological T₀-spaces. We regard the bicompletion reflector as a (pointed) endofunctor K:QU₀→QU₀. For any section F:Top₀→QU₀ of T we consider the (pointed) endofunctor R=TKF:Top₀→Top₀. The T-section F is called upper bicompletion-true (briefly, upper K-true) if the quasi-uniform space KFX is finer than FRX for every X in Top₀. An important known characterisation is that F is upper K-true iff the canonical embedding X→RX is an epimorphism in Top₀ for every X in Top₀. We show that this result admits a simple, purely categorical formulation and proof, independent of the setting of quasi-uniform and topological spaces. We thus mention a few other settings where the result is applicable. Returning then to the setting T:QU₀→Top₀, we prove: Any T-section F is upper K-true iff for all X the bitopology of KFX equals that of FRX; and iff the join topology of KFX equals the strong topology (also called the b- or Skula topology) of RX.     

Functoriality of the standard resolution of the Cartesian product of a compactum and a polyhedron

In a previous paper the author has associated with every inverse system of compact Hausdorff spaces X with limit X and every simplicial complex K (possibly infinite) with geometric realization P=|K| a resolution RK(X) of X×P, which consists of paracompact spaces. If X consists of compact polyhedra, then RK(X) consists of spaces having the homotopy type of polyhedra. In the present paper it is proved that this construction is functorial. One of the consequences is the existence of a functor from the strong shape category of compact Hausdorff spaces X to the shape category of spaces, which maps X to the Cartesian product X×P. Another consequence is the theorem which asserts that, for compact Hausdorff spaces X, X^′, such that X is strong shape dominated by X^′ and the Cartesian product X^′×P is a direct product in Sh(Top), then also X×P is a direct product in the shape category Sh(Top).     

Essential extensions of Hausdorff spaces

In the category Haus of Hausdorff spaces the only injectives are the one-point spaces. Even though every Hausdorff spaceX has a maximal essential extension,X fails to have an injective hull, providedX has more than one point. A non-empty Hausdorff space has a proper essential extension if and only ifX is locally H-closed but not H-closed. In this case,X has (up to isomorphism) precisely one proper essential extension: the Obreanu-Porter extension (being simultaneously its maximal essential extension and its minimal H-closed extension). Completely parallel results hold for the categories SReg, Reg, and Tych of semi-regular, regular, and completely regular spaces respectively. In particular, the Alexandroff compactifications of locally compact, non-compact Hausdorff spaces are characterized categorically as the proper essential extensions of non-empty spaces in Tych (resp. Reg).Dedicated to my friend Nico Pumplün on his sixtieth birthday     

Closed structures on categories of topological spaces

The category of all topological spaces and continuous maps and its full subcategory of all T_o-spaces admit (up to isomorphism) precisely one structure of symmetric monoidal closed category (see [2]). In this paper we shall prove the same result for any epireflective subcategory of the category of topological spaces (particularly e.g. for the categories of Hausdorff spaces, regular spaces, Tychonoff spaces).     

TOPOLOGICAL CATEGORIES AND CLOSURE OPERATORS

Abstract

It is shown that the category CS of closure spaces is a topological category. For each epireflective subcategory A of a topological category X a functor F _A :X → X is defined and used to extend to the general case of topological categories some results given in [4], [5] and [10] for epireflective subcategories of the category Top of topological spaces.     

Hausdorff separation in categories

Considering subobjects, points and a closure operator in an abstract category, we introduce a generalization of the Hausdorff separation axiom for topological spaces: the notion ofT ₂-object. We discuss the properties ofT ₂-objects, which depend essentially on the behaviour of points, and finally we relate them to the well-known separated objects.The results of this paper are essentially taken from the author's Ph. D. Thesis written under the supervision of Professors M. Sobral and W. Tholen and partially supported by a scholarship of I.N.I.C.-Instituto Nacional de Investigação Científica.     

On open ultrafilters and maximal points

In this work we expand upon the theory of open ultrafilters in the setting of regular spaces. In [E. van Douwen, Remote points, Dissertationes Math. (Rozprawy Mat.) 188 (1981) 1-45], van Douwen showed that if X is a non-feebly compact Tychonoff space with a countable π-base, then βX has a remote point. We develop a related result for the class of regular spaces which shows that in a non-feebly compact regular space X with a countable π-base, there exists a free open ultrafilter on X that is also a regular filter.Of central importance is a result of Mooney [D.D. Mooney, H-bounded sets, Topology Proc. 18 (1993) 195-207] that characterizes open ultrafilters as open filters that are saturated and disjoint-prime. Smirnov [J.M. Smirnov, Some relations on the theory of dimensions, Mat. Sb. 29 (1951) 157-172] showed that maximal completely regular filters are disjoint prime, from which it was concluded that βX is a perfect extension for a Tychonoff space X. We extend this result, and other results of Skljarenko [E.G. Skljarenko, Some questions in the theory of bicompactifications, Amer. Math. Soc. Transl. Ser. 2 58 (1966) 216-266], by showing that a maximal regular filter on any Hausdorff space is disjoint prime.Open ultrafilters are integral to the study of maximal points and lower topologies in the partial order of Hausdorff topologies on a fixed set. We show that a maximal point in a Hausdorff space cannot have a neighborhood base of feebly compact neighborhoods. One corollary is that no locally countably compact Hausdorff topology is a lower topology, which was shown previously under the additional assumption of countable tightness by Alas and Wilson [O. Alas, R. Wilson, Which topologies can have immediate successors in the lattice of T₁-topologies? Appl. Gen. Topol. 5 (2004) 231-242]. Another is that a maximal point in a feebly compact space is not a regular point. This generalizes results of both Carlson [N. Carlson, Lower upper topologies in the Hausdorff partial order on a fixed set, Topology Appl. 154 (2007) 619-624] and Costantini [C. Costantini, On some questions about posets of topologies on a fixed set, Topology Proc. 32 (2008) 187-225].     

On nearly pseudocompact spaces

A completely regular space X is called nearly pseudocompact if υX?X is dense in βX?X, where βX is the Stone-?ech compactification of X and υX is its Hewitt realcompactification. After characterizing nearly pseudocompact spaces in a variety of ways, we show that X is nearly pseudocompact if it has a dense locally compact pseudocompact subspace, or if no point of X has a closed realcompact neighborhood. Moreover, every nearly pseudocompact space X is the union of two regular closed subsets X₁, X₂ such that Int X₁ is locally compact, no points of X₂ has a closed realcompact neighborhood, and $\text{Int(X}{}_1\text{?X}{}_2\text{)=?}$. It follows that a product of two nearly pseudocompact spaces, one of which is locally compact, is also nearly pseudocompact.     

An asymmetric Ellis theorem

In 1957 Robert Ellis proved that a group with a locally compact Hausdorff topology T making all translations continuous also has jointly continuous multiplication and continuous inversion, and is thus a topological group. The theorem does not apply to locally compact asymmetric spaces such as the reals with addition and the topology of upper open rays. We first show a bitopological Ellis theorem, and then introduce a generalization of locally compact Hausdorff, called locally skew compact, and a topological dual, Tk, to obtain the following asymmetric Ellis theorem which applies to the example above:Whenever (X,⋅,T) is a group with a locally skew compact topology making all translations continuous, then multiplication is jointly continuous in both (X,⋅,T) and (X,⋅,Tk), and inversion is a homeomorphism between (X,T) and (X,Tk).This generalizes the classical Ellis theorem, because T=Tk when (X,T) is locally compact Hausdorff.     

Collections of paths and rays in the plane which fix its topology

A collection $\text{F}$ of proper maps into a locally compact Hausdorff space X fixes the topology of X if the only locally compact Hausdorff topology on X which makes each element of $\text{F}$ continuous and proper is the given topology. In I²=[-1, 1]×[-1, 1], neither the collection of analytic paths nor the collection of regular twice differentiable paths fixes the topology. However, in I², both the collection of C^∞ arcs and the collection of regular C¹ arcs fix the topology. In $\text{I}{}^2\text{=[?1,1]×[?1,1], the collection of polynomial rays together with any collection of paths does not fix the topology. However, in}\text{R}{}^2$, the collection of regular injective entire rays together with either the collection of C^∞ arcs or the collection of regular C¹ arcs fixes the topology.     

The enriched Vietoris monad on representable spaces

Employing a formal analogy between ordered sets and topological spaces, over the past years we have investigated a notion of cocompleteness for topological, approach and other kind of spaces. In this new context, the down-set monad becomes the filter monad, cocomplete ordered set translates to continuous lattice, distributivity means disconnectedness, and so on. Curiously, the dual(?) notion of completeness does not behave as the mirror image of the one of cocompleteness; and in this paper we have a closer look at complete spaces. In particular, we construct the “up-set monad” on representable spaces (in the sense of L. Nachbin for topological spaces, respectively C. Hermida for multicategories); we show that this monad is of Kock–Zöberlein type; we introduce and study a notion of weighted limit similar to the classical notion for enriched categories; and we describe the Kleisli category of our “up-set monad”. We emphasise that these generic categorical notions and results can be indeed connected to more “classical” topology: for topological spaces, the “up-set monad” becomes the lower Vietoris monad, and the statement “X   is totally cocomplete if and only if X^op$X^{\mathrm{op}}$ is totally complete” specialises to O. Wyler's characterisation of the algebras of the Vietoris monad on compact Hausdorff spaces as precisely the continuous lattices.     

Hereditary normality-type properties of hyperspaces

Let X be a Hausdorff topological space and exp(X) be the space of all (nonempty) closed subsets of a space X with the Vietoris topology. We consider hereditary normality-type properties of exp(X). In particular, we prove that if exp(X) is hereditarily D-normal, then X is a metrizable compact space.     

A glance at spaces with closure-preserving local bases

Call a space X (weakly) Japanese at a pointx∈X if X has a closure-preserving local base (or quasi-base respectively) at the point x. The space X is (weakly) Japanese if it is (weakly) Japanese at every x∈X. We prove, in particular, that any generalized ordered space is Japanese and that the property of being (weakly) Japanese is preserved by σ-products; besides, a dyadic compact space is weakly Japanese if and only if it is metrizable. It turns out that every scattered Corson compact space is Japanese while there exist even Eberlein compact spaces which are not weakly Japanese. We show that a continuous image of a compact first countable space can fail to be weakly Japanese so the (weak) Japanese property is not preserved by perfect maps. Another interesting property of Japanese spaces is their tightness-monolithity, i.e., in every weakly Japanese space X we have for any set A⊂X.     

Topological sums and products in ZF-set theory

In ZF, i.e., Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory without the axiom of choice, the category Top of topological spaces and continuous maps is well-behaved. In particular, Top has sums (=coproducts) and products. However, it may happen that for families (Xi)_i∈I and (Yi)_i∈I with the property that each Xi is homeomorphic to the corresponding Yi neither their sums _⊕i∈IXi and _⊕i∈IYi nor their products _∏i∈IXi and _∏i∈IYi are homeomorphic. It will be shown that the axiom of choice is not only sufficient but also necessary to rectify this defect.     

Functoriality of the standard resolution of the Cartesian product of a compactum and a polyhedron II

In 2003 the author has associated with every cofinite inverse system of compact Hausdorff spaces X with limit X and every simplicial complex K (possibly infinite) with geometric realization P=|K| a resolution R(X,K) of X×P, which consists of paracompact spaces. If X consists of compact polyhedra, then R(X,K) consists of spaces having the homotopy type of polyhedra. In a subsequent paper, published in 2007, the author proved that R(X,K) is a covariant functor in the first variable. In the present paper it is proved that R(X,K) is a covariant functor also in the second variable.     

Characterizing continuous functions on compact spaces

We consider the following problem: given a set X and a function , does there exist a compact Hausdorff topology on X which makes T continuous? We characterize such functions in terms of their orbit structure. Given the generality of the problem, the characterization turns out to be surprisingly simple and elegant. Amongst other results, we also characterize homeomorphisms on compact metric spaces.