Compactness and local compactness in hyperspaces (Q1862032)

In their interesting paper the authors treat compactness and relative compactness of subsets of hyperspaces, where the hyperspaces are considered to be equipped with the Vietoris, the Wijsman and partly the Hausdorff metric topology. Included in the paper are also characterizations of local compactness with respect to the mentioned hyperspace-topologies. These considerations are based on characterizations of the property that a single point of the hyperspace has a compact neighborhood. If \(X\) is a topological space, \(CL(X)\) is the set of all nonempty closed subsets of \(X\), and the authors use \(CL_\emptyset(X)= CL(X)\cup\{\emptyset\}\). Concerning the existence of compact neighborhoods, naturally it will be important to know whether or not \(X\) or \(\emptyset\) have a compact neighborhood. If \((X,d)\) is a metric space one can define the Hausdorff metric and the Wijsman topologies for \(CL(X)\) and \(CL_\emptyset(X)\). The Wijsman topology \(\tau_{W_d}\) on \(CL(X)\) is generated by the family of distance functions \(\{d(x,.)\mid x\in X\}\). Hence a subbase for \(\tau_{W_d}\) is given by all sets \(\{A\in CL(X)\mid d(x,A)< \alpha\}\), \(\{A\in CL(X)\mid d(x,A)> \alpha\}\), where \(\alpha> 0\) and \(x\in X\). We call a subset \(A\) of a topological space \(X\) relatively compact iff each net from \(A\) has a subnet converging to some point of \(X\). Moreover, a standard symbol of hyperspace theory is \(A^-= \{B\in CL(X)\mid A\cap B\neq\emptyset\}\). For instance, as it is well-known, \(\{G^-\mid G\) open in \(X\}\) is a subbase of the lower Vietoris topology. Concerning compactness of subsets with respect to the Vietoris topology \(\tau_V\) the authors prove the following nice result (Theorem 2): Let \(X\) be a regular space and \({\mathcal K}\) a subset of \(CL(X)\). Then \({\mathcal K}\) is compact w.r.t. \(\tau_V\) iff it is closed and satisfies the following condition: for every \(C\in CL(X)\) and for every open cover \(\mathcal U\) of \(C\) in \(X\) there exists a finite subcollection \(\mathcal F\) of \({\mathcal U}\) such that \({\mathcal C}^-\cap{\mathcal K}\subseteq \bigcup_{{\mathcal F}\in{\mathcal F}}{\mathcal F}^-\). If we do not assume that \({\mathcal K}\) is closed we (clearly) get by the theorem the characterization that \({\mathcal K}\) is relatively compact. For the Wijsman topology the authors find an analogous characterization. Now we consider local compactness, which the authors study for \(\tau_V\), for the Hausdorff metric topology \(\tau_{H_d}\) and for \(\tau_{W_d}\). Concerning \(\tau_V\) the authors first prove a criterion that \(C\in CL(X)\) has a compact neighborhood (\(C\) is a point of local compactness in \((CL(X),\tau_V)\)): Let \(X\) be a regular space, and \(C\in CL(X)\). Then \(C\) is a point of local compactness in \((CL(X),\tau_V)\) iff there exists an open set \(A\) with \(C\subseteq A\) and \(\overline A\) is compact. If \(X\) is regular then \((CL(X),\tau_V)\) is a Hausdorff space. Since \textit{E. Michael} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 71, 152-182 (1951; Zbl 0043.37902)] already has shown that a (Hausdorff) space is compact iff \((CL(X),\tau_V)\) is compact, the corresponding result (Corollary 11) is not so much a surprise: For a regular space \(X\), the following are equivalent: \(X\) is compact, \((CL(X),\tau_V)\) is locally compact, \(X\) is a point of local compactness in \((CL(X),\tau_V)\), \((CL(X),\tau_V)\) is compact. The authors find corresponding characterizations for \(\tau_{H_d}\) and \(\tau_{W_d}\), but the formulations are somewhat more complicated, and we will not give a sample. The authors also provide several interesting examples, showing the behaviour of \(\tau_{W_d}\) w.r.t. the existence or nonexistence of points of local compactness. An important tool for the investigations of the authors is the Hausdorff-Kuratowski set convergence; especially they use the fact that \(CL_\emptyset(X)\) with respect to this convergence is a compact convergence space. Finally, we want to remark: The notion of relative compactness, as defined above, is called weak relative compactness by the authors as compared with strong relative compactness (the closure of the subset is compact). In the opinion of the reviewer, relative compactness, as defined above, should be considered as the main compactness notion for subsets of a topological or a convergence space [see \textit{H. Poppe}, Quest. Answers Gen. Topology 13, 39-53 (1995; Zbl 0822.54002)].