Extreme selections for hyperspaces of topological spaces (Q1612244)

All spaces are assumed to be at least Hausdorff. The authors are interested in continuous selections for the hyperspace \({\mathcal F}(X)\) consisting of all non-empty closed subsets of \(X\) being ``extreme'' with respect to a point \(p\) of \(X\). Let \({\mathcal D}\subset {\mathcal F}(X)\). A map \(f:{\mathcal D}\to X\) is a selection for \({\mathcal D}\) if \(f(S)\in S\) for every \(S\in{\mathcal D}\). A map \(f:{\mathcal D}\to X\) is a continuous selection if it is a selection for \({\mathcal D}\) which is continuous with respect to the relative topology on \({\mathcal D}\) of the Vietoris topology on \({\mathcal F}(X)\). A selection \(f:{\mathcal F}(X)\to X\) is called a \(p\)-maximal if \(f^{-1}(p)= \{S\in{\mathcal F}(X): p\in S\}\) and if \(f\) is \(p\)-maximal for some point \(p\in X\), \(f\) is said to be a point-maximal. A selection \(f:{\mathcal F}(X)\to X\) is called a \(p\)-minimal if \(f^{-1}(p)= \{\{p\}\}\). Theorem ( E. Michael). Let \(X\) be a connected space, and let \(f\) be a continuous selection for \({\mathcal F}(X)\). Then, there exists a point \(p\in X\) such that \(f\) is \(p\)-maximal, and if \(g:{\mathcal F}(X)\to X\) is a continuous selection with \(f\neq g\), then \(g\) is \(p\)-minimal. In particular, \({\mathcal F}(X)\) has at most two different continuous selections. The authors generalize the above theorem characterizing the space \(X\) in which every continuous selection for \({\mathcal F}(X)\) is point-maximal, as below: Theorem 2.1. For a space \(X\) which contains at least two different points and has a continuous selection for \({\mathcal F}(X)\), the following conditions are equivalent: (a) Every continuous selection for \({\mathcal F}(X)\) is point-maximal. (b) \(X\) has a connected partiton \(\{X_1, X_2\}\) such that each \(X_i\), \(i= 1,2\), has exactly one continuous selection for \({\mathcal F}(X_i)\), where a connected partition means that \(\{X_1, X_2\}\) is a partition of \(X\) and \(X_1\) and \(X_2\) are connected. (c) \(X\) has a partition \(\{X_1, X_2\}\) such that \(X_i\), \(i= 1, 2\), has exactly one continuous selection for \({\mathcal F}(X_i)\). The authors also pay a special interest to the selection problem for countable spaces. Theorem 3.1. Let \(X\) be a countable space. Then \(X\) is weakly orderable if and only if \({\mathcal F}_2(X)= \{S\in{\mathcal F}(X):| S|\leq 2\}\) has a continuous selection, where \(X\) is weakly orderable if there exists a linear order \(<\) on \(X\) such that for any point \(x\in X\), the sets \((-\infty, x)\) and \((x,+\infty)\) are open. Theorem 3.3. For a countable space \(X\) the following two conditions are equivalent: (a) \(X\) is a metrizable scattered space. (b) For every point \(p\in X\) there exists a continuous \(p\)-maximal selection for \({\mathcal F}(X)\). Theorem 3.5. Let \(X\) be a separable space, and let \(p\in X\) be such that \({\mathcal F}(X)\) admits a continuous \(p\)-maximal selection. Then \(X\) is first countable at \(p\). As for characteriations of local properties of spaces \(X\) having a continuous selection for \({\mathcal F}(X)\), the autors obtain the following results: Corollary 4.3. Let \(X_p\) be a space with only one non-isolated point \(p\in X_p\), and let \(t(X_p)\leq\omega\), where \(t(X_p)\) denotes the tightness of \(X_p\). Then, the following conditions are equivalent: (a) \({\mathcal F}(X_p)\) has a continuous selection. (b) \({\mathcal F}_2(X_p)\) has a continuous selection. (c) \(\{p\}\) is a \(G_\delta\)-set in \(X\). They also present a construction of continuous selections for hyperspaces on the space \(X\) with a fixed point \(p\) and several related results.