Orthocompactness versus normality in hyperspaces (Q409586)

Let \(X\) be a topological space. A collection \(\mathcal W\) of open sets in \(X\) is \textit{interior preserving} if \(\bigcap \mathcal W'\) is open for every subcollection \(\mathcal W' \subseteq \mathcal W\). Recall that \(X\) is \textit{orthocompact} if every open cover of \(X\) has an interior preserving open refinement. In addition, \(X\) is called \textit{countably metacompact} if every countable open cover of \(X\) has a point finite open refinement. Let \(2^X\) denote the collection of all non-empty closed sets of \(X\) equipped with the Vietoris topology and \({\mathcal K}(X)\) denote the collection of non-empty compact sets of \(X\) with the subspace topology of \(2^X\). Ordinals are equipped with the order topology. In this paper, the authors study the orthocompactness and normality of hyperspaces of ordinals. The main result claims that for an ordinal \(\gamma\), \(\mathcal K(\gamma)\) is orthocomact if and only if it is normal if and only if \(\gamma\) either has countable cofinality or is a regular and uncountable ordinal. Two proofs for this result are provided, one of which does not use the elementary submodel techniques. Thus, Question C of [\textit{N. Kemoto}, Topology Appl. 154, No. 2, 358--363 (2007); erratum ibid. 157, No. 15, 2446--2447 (2010; Zbl 1116.54006)] is answered. The authors also consider the question whether \(2^\omega\) is orthocompact. This open question is indeed equivalent to Question A in the same reference, as the authors show that \(2^\omega\) is orthocompact if and only if it is countably metacompact.