A Kuratowski-Mrówka theorem in approach theory (Q818398)

The notion of ``measure of compactness'' for approach spaces is based on such a notion for metric spaces originally introduced by Kuratowski. An approach space for which this measure is zero is called \(0\)-compact. For topological (pseudometric) approach spaces \(0\)-compactness coincides with compactness (resp. totally bounded). The concepts of closed and proper contraction maps between approach spaces are introduced and are shown to satisfy certain axioms associated with one of the usual factorization structures on the category of approach spaces. Various relationships between proper maps and \(0\)-compactness are proved. The main result is the characterization of \(0\)-compactness as follows: An approach space \(X\) is \(0\)-compact if and only if for each approach space \(Z\); the second factor projection map \(X\times Z\to Z\) is closed.