Spaces of small cellularity have nowhere constant continuous images of small weight (Q2217251)

The authors call a continuous map ``nowhere constant'' if each of its fibers is nowhere dense and ``pseudo-open'', if the pre-image of every nowhere dense set is nowhere dense. All spaces in the paper are assumed to be without isolated points, which entails that every pseudo-open map is also nowhere constant. The authors study the following admittedly imprecise question: ``How ``small'' nowhere constant (pseudo-open) images can ``large'' spaces have?'', proving results of which the following represent the countable case: 1) Let \(X\) be a Tychonoff space with the countable chain condition. Then \(X\) has a nowhere constant Tychonoff image of weight \(\leq \omega_1\). Moreover, if the Suslin Hypothesis holds, \(X\) has a nowhere constant Tychonoff image of countable weight. 2) Let \(X\) be a Tychonoff space with the countable chain condition. Then \(X\) has a pseudo-open Tychonoff image of weight \(\leq 2^{\aleph_0}\). Finally, the authors show that 1) is sharp by proving that every nowhere constant image of a Suslin Line has uncountable weight and they prove that 2) is consistently sharp, by exhibiting, under Martin's Axiom, an example of a Tychonoff space \(X\) with the countable chain condition such that every Hausdorff pseudo-open image of \(X\) has weight \(\geq 2^{\aleph_0}\). The existence of such a space in ZFC is left as an open question.