Topological dimension and sums of connectivity functions (Q5937494)

\(\mathbb{R}^X\) is the family of all functions from a non-empty set \(X\) to \(\mathbb{R}\). For a subset \(\mathcal F\) of \(\mathbb{R}^X\) and a nonnegative integer \(m\) we use the symbol: \(m{\mathcal F} = \{f_1 + \cdots + f_m \mid f_1, \cdots ,f_m \in {\mathcal F} \}\). Then dimension of \(X\) relative to \(\mathcal F\), \(\text{DIM}_{\mathcal F} X\), is defined by \(\min (\{m \in \mathbb{Z}\mid m \geq 0\) and \((m+1){\mathcal F} = \mathbb{R}^X \} \cup \{\infty \})\). A function \(f: X \to \mathbb{R}\) of a metric space \(X\) is a connectivity function (Darboux function) if for every connected subset \(C \subset X\) the graph of the restriction \(f|_C\) is a connected subset of \(X \times \mathbb{R}\) (the image \(f(C)\) is a connected subset of \(\mathbb{R}\)). Let \(\mathcal C\) be the family of connectivity functions on \(X\) and \(\mathcal D\) be the family of Darboux functions on \(X\). The authors [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc., III. Ser. 76, No. 2, 406-426 (1998; Zbl 0891.26008)], the first author and \textit{I. Reclaw} [Real Anal. Exch. 21, No. 2, 459-472 (1995; Zbl 0879.26005)] and \textit{F. Jordan} [Real Anal. Exch. 24, No. 2, 729-759 (1998; Zbl 0967.26009)] showed that \(\text{DIM}_{\mathcal C} \mathbb{R}^n = \text{DIM}_{\mathcal D} \mathbb{R}^n = n\). In this paper the authors generalize the result to \(\sigma\)-compact metric spaces. Thus, if \(X\) is a \(\sigma\)-compact metric space, then \(\text{DIM}_{\mathcal D} X \geq \dim X\). If \(X\) is a separable metric space, then \(\text{DIM}_{\mathcal C} X \leq \dim X\). Therefore if \(X\) is a \(\sigma\)-compact metric space, then \(\text{DIM}_{\mathcal C} X = \text{DIM}_{\mathcal D} X = \dim X\). For the proof, \textit{Y. Hayashi}'s result about universal spaces [Topology Appl. 37, No. 1, 83-92 (1990; Zbl 0732.54030)] is essentially used. They note that for totally disconnected separable metric spaces \(X\) with \(\dim X = n \geq 2\), which they call spaces of Mazurkiewicz of dimension \(n\), then \(\text{DIM}_{\mathcal C} X = \text{DIM}_{\mathcal D} X = < n = \dim X\). Hence the equality cannot be generalized to separable metric spaces. They also investigate relations of \(\text{DIM}_{\mathcal F} X\) and \(\dim X\) of a separable metric space \(X\) for several families \(\mathcal F\) of functions.