On unions and intersections of simply connected planar sets (Q2573762)

A space \(X\) is called simply connected if it is path-connected and its fundamental group is trivial. In a previous paper [Topology Appl. 122, 281-286 (2002; Zbl 1007.54020)], the two first named authors showed that there exist two simply connected planar sets with simply connected intersection but non-simply connected union. In the paper under review, the authors generalize this result to an arbitrary finite number of simply connected sets as follows. Theorem 1.1. For an arbitrary natural number \(n\) there exists a family \(\mathcal{F}=\{F_{1},\ldots ,F_{n}\}\) of simply connected compact subsets of \(\mathbb{R}^{2}\) such that: (1) The union of every nonempty proper subfamily of \(\mathcal{F}\) and the intersection of every nonempty subfamily of \(\mathcal{F}\) are nonempty and simply connected. (2) The union of all members of \(\mathcal{F}\) is not simply connected. The other main result of the paper is Theorem 1.2. If in a finite nonempty family \(\mathcal{F}\) of planar simply connected compact or open subspaces the intersection of every two members is path-connected and the intersection of every three members is nonempty, then the intersection of all members of \(\mathcal{F}\) is nonempty. With these results: (a) The authors show that without additional conditions, a theorem of \textit{M. Breen} [Geom. Dedicata 71, 111--117 (1998; Zbl 0911.52005)] and a direct generalization of the Seifert-van Kampen theorem fail. (b) They give answers to two conjectures of \textit{S. A. Bogatyi} [Fundam. Prikl. Mat. 8, 365--405 (2002; Zbl 1028.52004)] and a partial solution to his third conjecture. (c) They give a counterexample to a statement in the classical survey paper by \textit{L. Danzer, B. Grunbaum} and \textit{V. Klee} [Proc. Sympos. Pure Math. 7, 101-180 (1963; Zbl 0132.17401)], related to Molnár's result on intersections of simply connected planar sets.