Minimal usco maps and cardinal invariants of the topology of uniform convergence on compacta (Q2244653)

This paper is concerned with cardinal invariants of \(MU(X)\), the space of minimal usco maps from \(X\) to \(\mathbb R\) with its standard metric, endowed with the topology of uniform convergence on compact subsets. It relates cardinal invariants of \(MU(X)\) with the following two cardinal invariants on \(X\). Let \(K(X)\) be the class of compact subsets of \(X\). Then the weak \(k\)-covering number of \(X\) is \[ wkc(X) = \omega + \min\left\{ \left| \mathscr F \right| : \mathscr F \subseteq K(X) \wedge X = \mathrm{cl}\left( \bigcup \mathscr F\right) \right\}. \] The \(k\)-cofinality of \(X\) is \[ kcof(X) = \omega + \min\left\{ \left| \mathscr F \right| : \mathscr F \subseteq K(X) \wedge (\forall K \in K(X))(\exists F \in \mathscr F)\ K \subseteq F \right\}. \] For a regular space \(X\), this paper establishes that \[ wkc(X) = \psi(MU(X)) = \Delta(MU(X)) \] where \(\psi\) denotes the pseudocharacter and \(\Delta\) denotes the diagonal degree; that is, the minimal cardinality of open subsets of the square so that the diagonal is the intersection of those open sets. For any space \(X\), this paper establishes that \[ kcof(X) = \chi(MU(X)) = \pi_\chi(MU(X)) = u(MU(X)) \] where \(\chi\) denotes the character, \(\pi_\chi\) denotes the \(\pi\)-character, and \(u\) denotes the uniform weight. This paper also establishes a sufficient condition, differing from metrizability, that guarantees that many cardinal invariants agree for \(MU(X)\). In particular, assuming that \(X\) contains an infinite compact set and \(kcof(X) \leq \mathfrak c\), the cardinality of the continuum, \begin{align*} c(MU(X)) &= d(MU(X))\\ &= e(MU(X))\\ &= L(MU(X))\\ &= nw(MU(X))\\ &= \pi w(MU(X))\\ &= s(MU(X))\\ &= w(MU(X)), \end{align*} where \(c\) denotes the cellularity, \(d\) denotes the density, \(e\) denotes the extent, \(L\) denotes the Lindelöf degree, \(nw\) denotes the network weight, \(s\) denotes the spread, and \(w\) denotes the weight. The paper ends with some more results characterizing the weight of \(MU(X)\). As a corollary to some of these results, it is shown that \(MU([0,1]^{\mathfrak c})\), \(MU(\mathbb R)\), and \(C([0,1]^{\mathfrak c})\) are all homeomorphic, where \(C(X)\) denotes the space of continuous real-valued functions on \(X\).