The Lawson number of a semitopological semilattice (Q2037077)

A \textit{topologized semilattice} \(X\) is a semilattice endowed with a topology. If in addition the semigroup operation \(X\times X\to X\), \((x,y)\mapsto xy\) is separately continuous, then \(X\) is called a \textit{semitopological semilattice}. The authors call a topologized semilattice \(X\) \textit{complete} if each non-empty chain \(C\subseteq X\) has \(\inf C\in\overline{ C}\) and \(\sup C\in\overline{C}\). As the authors mention, \textit{complete semitopological semilattices share many common properties with compact topological semilattices, in particular their continuous homomorphic images in Hausdorff topological semilattices are closed.} This and other results lead to the following problem, which is the main motivation for the paper under review. PROBLEM 1. Assume that \(h:X\to Y\) is a continuous homomorphism from a complete topologized semilattice \(X\) to a Hausdorff semitopological semilattice \(Y\). Is the image \(h[X]\) closed in \(Y\)? A positive solution to Problem 1 would be an interesting generalization of the above-mentioned facts about complete semitopological semilattices. After recalling some known partial positive solutions, the authors show that Problem 1 has an affirmative answer under the further assumption that \(Y\) is \textit{\( \omega\)-Lawson}, a condition which means that, for any distinct points \(x , y \in Y\), there exists a countable family \(\mathcal U\) of closed neighborhoods of \(x\) such that \(\bigcap \mathcal U\) is a subsemilattice of \(Y\) that does not contain \(y\). More generally, the authors introduce and study the Lawson number \( \overline{\Lambda} ( X )\) of a Hausdorff topologized semilattice. For a compact Hausdorff semitopological semilattice \(X\), being \(1\)-Lawson (that is, \( \overline{\Lambda} ( X )=1\)) is equivalent to being Lawson, a classical notion introduced in [\textit{J. D. Lawson}, J. Lond. Math. Soc., II. Ser. 1, 719--724 (1969; Zbl 0185.03801)]. The authors show that every Hausdorff topological semilattice \(X\) has \( \overline{\Lambda} ( X ) \leq \omega \). On the other hand, they construct Hausdorff zero-dimensional semitopological semilattices of arbitrarily large Lawson number.