Higher order dissolutions and Boolean coreflections of locales (Q1588079)

In this paper the problem of characterizing \(a\)-soluble locales (a locale is called \(a\)-soluble if its \(a\)-th dissolution is Boolean) for small \(a\), and the related problem of characterizing \(a\)-insoluble locales are considered. The key notion used in these characterizations is the notion of rare sublocales. It is obtained that a locale \(A\) is: (i) 1-soluble iff it has no nonzero rare sublocales, (ii) 2-soluble iff each \(S<A\) or \(S=A\) has a largest rare sublocale iff \(A\) satisfies (ACC) for rare inclusions, (iii) 3-soluble iff \(A\) contains no nontrivial rarefying family (a family \(\mathcal F\) of sublocales of \(A\) in which each element is covered by its rare sublocales contained in \(\mathcal F\)). Finally a sufficient condition for insolubility ``a locale is insoluble if all its Boolean sublocales are extremely rare'' is given. This result implies that the locale of rational numbers has no Boolean coreflection, and hence that the only metrizable spaces with a Boolean coreflection are the scattered ones.