Generalized uniform covering maps relative to subgroups

In “Rips complexes and covers in the uniform category” (Brodskiy et al., preprint [4]) the authors define, following James (1990) [5], covering maps of uniform spaces and introduce the concept of generalized uniform covering maps. Conditions for the existence of universal uniform covering maps and generalized uniform covering maps are given. This paper extends these results by investigating the existence of these covering maps relative to subgroups of the uniform fundamental group and the fundamental group of the base space.     

Uniform universal covers of uniform spaces

We develop a generalized covering space theory for a class of uniform spaces called coverable spaces. Coverable spaces include all geodesic metric spaces, connected and locally pathwise connected compact topological spaces, in particular Peano continua, as well as more pathological spaces like the topologist's sine curve. The uniform universal cover of a coverable space is a kind of generalized cover with universal and lifting properties in the category of uniform spaces and uniformly continuous mappings. Associated with the uniform universal cover is a functorial uniform space invariant called the deck group, which is related to the classical fundamental group by a natural homomorphism. We obtain some specific results for one-dimensional spaces.     

Countable connected Hausdorff and Urysohn bunches of arcs in the plane

In this paper, we answer a question by Krasinkiewicz, Reńska and Sobolewski by constructing countable connected Hausdorff and Urysohn spaces as quotient spaces of bunches of arcs in the plane. We also consider a generalization of graphs by allowing vertices to be continua and replacing edges by not necessarily connected sets. We require only that two “vertices” be in the same quasi-component of the “edge” that contains them. We observe that if a graph G cannot be embedded in the plane, then any generalized graph modeled on G is not embeddable in the plane. As a corollary we obtain not planar bunches of arcs with their natural quotients Hausdorff or Urysohn. This answers another question by Krasinkiewicz, Reńska and Sobolewski.     

On the homotopy groups of separable metric spaces

The aim of this paper is to discuss the homotopy properties of locally well-behaved spaces. First, we state a nerve theorem. It gives sufficient conditions under which there is a weak n-equivalence between the nerve of a good cover and its underlying space. Then we conclude that for any (n−1)-connected, locally (n−1)-connected compact metric space X which is also n-semilocally simply connected, the nth homotopy group of X, πn(X), is finitely presented. This result allows us to provide a new proof for a generalization of Shelah?s theorem (Shelah, 1988 [18]) to higher homotopy groups (Ghane and Hamed, 2009 [8]). Also, we clarify the relationship between two homotopy properties of a topological space X, the property of being n-homotopically Hausdorff and the property of being n-semilocally simply connected. Further, we give a way to recognize a nullhomotopic 2-loop in 2-dimensional spaces. This result will involve the concept of generalized dendrite which introduce here. Finally, we prove that each 2-loop is homotopic to a reduced 2-loop.     

Small loop spaces

The importance of small loops in the covering space theory was pointed out by Brodskiy, Dydak, Labuz, and Mitra in [2] and [3]. A small loop is a loop which is homotopic to a loop contained in an arbitrarily small neighborhood of its base point and a small loop space is a topological space in which every loop is small. Small loops are the strongest obstruction to semi-locally simply connectedness. We construct a small loop space using the Harmonic Archipelago. Furthermore, we define the small loop group of a space and study its impact on covering spaces, in particular its contribution to the fundamental group of the universal covering space.     

The KKM principle in abstract convex spaces: Equivalent formulations and applications

The partial KKM principle for an abstract convex space is an abstract form of the classical KKM theorem. A KKM space is an abstract convex space satisfying the partial KKM principle and its “open” version. In this paper, we clearly derive a sequence of a dozen statements which characterize the KKM spaces and equivalent formulations of the partial KKM principle. As their applications, we add more than a dozen statements including generalized formulations of von Neumann minimax theorem, von Neumann intersection lemma, the Nash equilibrium theorem, and the Fan type minimax inequalities for any KKM spaces. Consequently, this paper unifies and enlarges previously known several proper examples of such statements for particular types of KKM spaces.     

Lindelöf spaces which are Menger, Hurewicz, Alster, productive, or D

We discuss relationships in Lindelöf spaces among the properties “Menger”, “Hurewicz”, “Alster”, “productive”, and “D”.     

Some recollections on early work with Jan Pelant

In this note we consider three questions which can be traced to our early collaboration with Jan “Honza” Pelant. We present them from the contemporary perspective, in some cases extending our earlier work. The questions relate to Ramsey theory, uniform spaces and tournaments.     

On fundamental groups of quotient spaces

In classical covering space theory, a covering map induces an injection of fundamental groups. This paper reveals a dual property for certain quotient maps having connected fibers, with applications to orbit spaces of vector fields and leaf spaces in general.     

Lindelöf spaces which are indestructible, productive, or D

We discuss relationships in Lindelöf spaces among the properties “indestructible”, “productive”, “D”, and related properties.     

Homotopical smallness and closeness

The aim of this paper is to introduce the concepts of homotopical smallness and closeness. These are the properties of homotopical classes of maps that are related to recent developments in homotopy theory and to the construction of universal covering spaces for non-semi-locally simply connected spaces, in particular to the properties of being homotopically Hausdorff and homotopically path Hausdorff. The definitions of notions in question and their role in homotopy theory are supplemented by examples, extensional classifications, universal constructions and known applications.     

Indestructibility of compact spaces

In this article we investigate which compact spaces remain compact under countably closed forcing. We prove that, assuming the Continuum Hypothesis, the natural generalizations to _ω1${\omega }_1$-sequences of the selection principle and topological game versions of the Rothberger property are not equivalent, even for compact spaces. We also show that Tall and Usuba?s “_ℵ1${\aleph }_1$-Borel Conjecture” is equiconsistent with the existence of an inaccessible cardinal.     

Bead spaces and fixed point theorems

The notion of a bead metric space defined here (see Definition 6) is a nice generalization of that of the uniformly convex normed space. In turn, the idea of a central point for a mapping when combined with the “single central point” property of the bead spaces enables us to obtain strong and elegant extensions of the Browder-Göhde-Kirk fixed point theorem for nonexpansive mappings (see Theorems 14-17). Their proofs are based on a very simple reasoning. We also prove two theorems on continuous selections for metric and Hilbert spaces. They are followed by fixed point theorems of Schauder type. In the final part we obtain a result on nonempty intersection.     

Crossed modules as homotopy normal maps

In this note we consider crossed modules of groups (N→G, G→Aut(N)), as a homotopy version of the inclusion N⊂G of a normal subgroup. Our main observation is a characterization of the underlying map N→G of a crossed module in terms of a simplicial group structure on the associated bar construction. This approach allows for “natural” generalizations to other monoidal categories, in particular we consider briefly what we call “normal maps” between simplicial groups.     

Domain representability of certain function spaces

Let Cp(X) be the space of all continuous real-valued functions on a space X, with the topology of pointwise convergence. In this paper we show that Cp(X) is not domain representable unless X is discrete for a class of spaces that includes all pseudo-radial spaces and all generalized ordered spaces. This is a first step toward our conjecture that if X is completely regular, then Cp(X) is domain representable if and only if X is discrete. In addition, we show that if X is completely regular and pseudonormal, then in the function space Cp(X), Oxtoby's pseudocompleteness, strong Choquet completeness, and weak Choquet completeness are all equivalent to the statement “every countable subset of X is closed”.     

Fréchet-Urysohn for finite sets, II

We continue our study [G. Gruenhage, P.J. Szeptycki, Fréchet Urysohn for finite sets, Topology Appl. 151 (2005) 238-259] of several variants of the property of the title. We answer a question from that paper by showing that a space defined in a natural way from a certain Hausdorff gap is a Fréchet α₂ space which is not Fréchet-Urysohn for 2-point sets (FU₂), and answer a question of Hrušák by showing that under MAω₁, no such “gap space” is FU₂. We also introduce versions of the properties which are defined in terms of “selection principles”, give examples when possible showing that the properties are distinct, and discuss relationships of these properties to convergence in product spaces, to the αi-spaces of A.V. Arhangel'skii, and to topological games.     

On trivialities of Stiefel-Whitney classes of vector bundles over highly connected complexes

It is a classical theorem of Milnor that for every vector bundle over Sn, all the Stiefel-Whitney classes vanish if and only if n≠1,2,4,8. We describe a space B as W-trivial (except for one dimension) if for every vector bundle over B, all the Stiefel-Whitney classes vanish (except for a single fixed dimension). We establish theorems which state that certain high-connectivities of B imply these trivialities as well as a theorem which states that there are infinitely many “W-trivial except for one dimension” spaces.     

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.     

Weak covering properties and selection principles

No convenient internal characterization of spaces that are productively Lindelöf is known. Perhaps the best general result known is Alster?s internal characterization, under the Continuum Hypothesis, of productively Lindelöf spaces which have a basis of cardinality at most _ℵ1${\aleph }_1$. It turns out that topological spaces having Alster?s property are also productively weakly Lindelöf. The weakly Lindelöf spaces form a much larger class of spaces than the Lindelöf spaces. In many instances spaces having Alster?s property satisfy a seemingly stronger version of Alster?s property and consequently are productively X, where X is a covering property stronger than the Lindelöf property. This paper examines the question: When is it the case that a space that is productively X is also productively Y, where X and Y are covering properties related to the Lindelöf property.