Remainders of rectifiable spaces (Q2268635)

All spaces considered are Tychonoff. A remainder of a space \(X\) is the subspace \(bX\setminus X\) of a Hausdorff compactification \(bX\) of \(X\). This paper studies the class of spaces which can serve as remainders of rectifiable spaces. A rectification on a space \(X\) is a homeomorphism \(\phi: X\times X\to X\times X\) such that {\parindent5mm \begin{itemize}\item[i)] \(\phi(\{x\}\times X)= \{x\}\times X\), for every \(x\in X\) and \item[ii)] there exists \(e\in X\) such that \(\phi(x,x)= (x, e)\) for every point \(x\in X\). \end{itemize}} A space with a rectification is called a rectifiable space. Since all topological spaces are rectifiable spaces, the results in this article generalize previous results of the first author obtained on topological groups [Commentat. Math. Univ. Carol. 49, No. 1, 119--126 (2008; Zbl 1212.54086)]. After developing some properties of rectifiable spaces, the main result is presented. Theorem 3.1. For every rectifiable space \(G\), any remainder of \(G\) in a compactification \(bG\) is either pseudocompact or Lindelöf. Some consequences of this theorem and related results are also established. The next section studies the remainders of several other generalizations of topological groups. For example, a group \(G\) and topology \({\mathfrak J}\) is called a paratopological group if the multiplication \((x, y)\to x\cdot y\) is a continuous mapping of \(G\times G\) onto \(G\). Theorem 4.4. Suppose that \(G\) is a \(k\)-gentle paratopological group. Then any remainder of \(G\) in a compactification \(bG\) of \(G\) is either pseudocompact or Lindelöf. For a paratopological group to be \(k\)-gentle, it is required that the image of compact sets be compact under the inverse mapping \(x\to x^{-1}\). The final section presents several open questions related to results established earlier in the article. Partial answers, insights and relevant examples concerning these questions are provided.