Compact interval spaces in which all closed subsets are homeomorphic to clopen ones. I (Q1205156)

A topological space \(X\) whose topology is the order topology of some linear ordering on \(X\) is called an interval space. A space in which every closed subspace is homeomorphic to a clopen subspace is called a \(CO\) space. Linear orderings are regarded as topological spaces by equipping them with their order topology. If \(L\) and \(K\) are linear orderings, then \(L^*\), \(L+K\), \(L\cdot K\) denote respectively the reverse orderings of \(L\), the ordered sum of \(L\) and \(K\) and the lexicographic order on \(L\times K\). Ordinals are considered as linear orderings; cardinals are initial ordinals. For cardinals \(\kappa,\lambda\geq 0\), let \(L(\kappa,\lambda)=\kappa+1+\lambda^*\). In the first part of the paper the authors show that if \(X\) is a compact interval \(CO\) space, then every nonempty subspace of \(X\) has an isolated point. The result will be used in the second part of the paper to establish the following general theorem: Let \(X\) be a compact interval space. Then \(X\) is a \(CO\) space if and only if \(X\) is homeomorphic to a space of the form \(\alpha+1+\sum_{i<n}L(\kappa_ i,\lambda_ i)\), where \(\alpha\) is any ordinal, \(n\in\omega\), for every \(i<n\), \(\kappa_ i,\lambda_ i\) are regular cardinals such that \(\kappa_ i\geq\lambda_ i\geq\omega\), and if \(n>0\), then \(\alpha\geq\max(\{\kappa_ i:i<n\})\cdot\omega\). Delicate set-theoretic arguments are used in the proofs of those results. It is shown that if a \(CO\) space \(X\) is not of the desired form, then there are many ``very'' non-homeomorphic closed subsets of \(X\). If \(F_ 1\) and \(F_ 2\) are such subspaces of \(X\) and \(U_ 1\) and \(U_ 2\) are clopen subspaces of \(X\) homeomorphic to \(F_ 1\) and \(F_ 2\) respectively, then necessarily \(U_ 1\cap U_ 2=\emptyset\). In such a way some cardinal invariant of \(X\) is increased beyond its actual size. Finally, some questions about the general structure of compact \(CO\) spaces are asked.