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].