The category of \(S(\alpha)\)-spaces is not cowellpowered (Q1346172)

\textit{J. Schröder} [Topology Appl. 16, 237-241 (1983; Zbl 0534.54004)] showed that the category of Urysohn spaces (distinct points are separable by closed neighbourhoods) is not cowellpowered (an object may have a proper class of nonequivalent epimorphic extensions) \textit{J. R. Porter} and \textit{C. Votaw} [Pac. J. Math. 45, 327-345 (1973; Zbl 0262.54020)] introduced the separation axiom \(S(\alpha)\) for every ordinal \(\alpha\), such that \(S(1)\) = Hausdorff, \(S(2)\) = Urysohn. It was shown by \textit{D. Dikranjan}, \textit{E. Giuli} and the reviewer [Closure operators II, Proc. Int. Conf. Categorical Topology Prague 1988, World Scientific, Singapore, pp. 297-335 (1989)] that \(S(n)\) fails to be cowellpowered for all natural \(n \geq 2\). In the paper under review, this result is extended to all infinite ordinals, so that one obtains a proper class of naturally- defined but non-cowellpowered subcategories of \textbf{Top}. In fact, the authors deduce this from a much more general result, by introducing a separation axiom \(S[\eta]\) depending on an order type \(\eta\) and giving a complete characterization of those types for which \(S[\eta]\) is cowellpowered.