Symmetric \(g\)-functions and cardinal inequalities (Q2400848)

A topological space is said to be CCC if any disjoint family of open sets in \(X\) is countable, and it is said to be DCCC if any discrete family of non-empty open sets in \(X\) is countable. If \(\mathcal P\) is a topological property, a topological space \(X\) is said to be a star \(\mathcal{P}\) space if for every open cover \(\mathcal U\) of \(X\) there is a subspace \(A \subseteq X\) such that \(A\) satisfies \(\mathcal P\) and \(\text{St}(A, \mathcal U) := \bigcup\{U \in \mathcal U: U \cap A \neq \emptyset\} = X\). A \(g\)-function for a space \(X\) with topology \(\tau\) is a map \(g: \omega \times X \to \tau\) such that for every \(x \in X\) one has \(x \in g(n,x)\) and \(g(n+1,x) \subseteq g(n,x)\) for all \(n < \omega\). Letting \(g^1(n,x) = g(n,x)\) and \(g^{k+1}(n,x) = \bigcup \{g^k(n,y): y \in g(n,x)\}\) for all \(k,n < \omega\), one can easily check by induction that \(g^{k+1}(n,x) = \bigcup \{g(n,y): y \in g^k(n,x)\}\) for all \(k, n < \omega\). A \(g\)-function \(g\) is said to be symmetric if, for any \(n < \omega\) and \(y \in X\), \(y \in g(n,x)\) whenever \(x \in g(n,y)\). In the paper under review, the author shows that: if \(X\) is a topological space with a symmetric \(g\)-function satisfying \(\bigcap\{g^2(n,x): n < \omega\} = \{x\}\) for all \(x \in X\), then its cardinality is at most \(\mathfrak{c}\) if \(X\) satisfies one of the following conditions: (1) \(X\) is CCC; (2) \(X\) is star-countable (even star \(\sigma\)-compact); and (3) \(X\) is normal and DCCC. It is also proved in the paper that if \(X\) is a DCCC space with a symmetric \(g\)-function such that \(\bigcap\{g^3(n,x): n < \omega\} = \{x\}\) for all \(x \in X\) then its cardinality is also bounded above by \(\mathfrak{c}\).