Box-homotopy and the reduction of \({pro}^*\)-\({HTop}\) category (Q2284274)

Let \(X\) be a topological space. In the present paper, the authors consider the box topology on \(\prod_{\mathbb{N}}X\) and denote by \(\tilde{X}\) the quotient space \(\prod_{\mathbb{N}}X/\sim\), where \((x_n)\sim(x'_n),(x'_n)\in\prod_{\mathbb{N}}X\) if they differ at most on a finite number of coordinates. They prove that this space preserves separation properties from the original space. Also, in \(\tilde{X}\), intersections of countably many open sets are open. Also, the authors propose a generalization of the notion of homotopy, a relation that is called box-homotopy and denoted by \(\sim_{\square}\). Naturally, all homotopic maps are box-homotopic, and they provide an example showing that the converse does not hold. Then they construct a new category, \(H_{\square}\mathrm{Top}\), with topological spaces as objects and box-homotopy classes of continuous maps as morphisms, as it turns out that box-homotopy is an equivalence relation on \(\mathrm{Top}(X,Y)\), and that it behaves well under composition. Finally, they propose a new functor \(\tilde{R}\) from \(\mathrm{pro}^\ast\)-\(H\mathrm{Top}\) to \(\mathrm{pro}\)-\(H_{\square}\mathrm{Top}\), which represents morphisms of the \(\mathrm{pro}^\ast\)-category as morphisms of the \(\mathrm{pro}\)-category between more complex objects.