Taming closed subsets of the Cantor fence (Q2683769): Difference between revisions

Let \(\mathcal{C}\subset\mathbb{R}\) be a Cantor set. It was previously proved by \textit{E. D. Tymchatyn} and \textit{R. B. Walker} [Topology Appl. 83, No. 1, 45--52 (1998; Zbl 0933.54030)] that every embedding \(h\) of \(\mathcal{C}\times[0,1]\) (the Cantor fence) into \(\mathbb{R}^2\) is tame in the sense that there exists a homeomorphism \(\varphi:\mathbb{R}^2\to\mathbb{R}^2\) with \(\varphi(h(\mathcal{C}\times[0,1]))\subset\mathcal{C}\times[0,1]\). (Other versions of the notion of tame might require that \(\varphi(h(\mathcal{C}\times[0,1]))=\mathcal{C}\times[0,1]\) or even that \(\varphi\circ h:\mathcal{C}\times[0,1]\to\mathcal{C}\times[0,1]\) be the identity). The authors, in answering a question of L. Oversteegen, provide a stronger result than that of Tymchatyn and Walker as follows: Corollary 1. Every embedding \(h\) of a closed subset \(B\) of \(\mathcal{C}\times[0,1]\) into \(\mathbb{R}^2\) is tame (in the sense that there exists a homeomorphism \(\varphi:\mathbb{R}^2\to\mathbb{R}^2\) such that \(\varphi(h(B))\subset\mathcal{C}\times[0,1]\) and for each \(b\in B\) and \(x=h(b)\), \(\pi_2(b)=\pi_2(h^{-1}(x))=\pi_2(\varphi(x))\) where \(\pi_2\) is the second coordinate projection, i.e., the horizontal projection, of \(\mathbb{R}^2\)).