Quotient theorems via ultracoproducts (Q2334027)

Throughout, a \textit{continuum} is a nonempty connected compact Hausdorff topological space. No metrizability assumption is made. In this largely self-contained paper the author uses the topological ultracoproduct construction in order to prove various ``quotient theorems'' for continua, namely, in the author's words, statements of the rough form: Every continuum \(X\) (with restrictions possible) is a ``special image'' of a ``special continuum'' \(Y\). As an example, among many other results, the author proves the following theorem. Theorem. (Assuming the Generalized Continuum Hypothesis) For a given infinite cardinal \(\alpha\), every continuum \(X\) is a weakly confluent image of a continuum \(Y\) which is hereditarily indecomposable, has covering dimension one, has \(|Y| \)-many composants and has weight \(2^{ \alpha 2 ^{w(X)} } \). As for the terminology: a continuous map \(f:Y \to X\) is \textit{weakly confluent} if each subcontinuum of \(X\) is the image under \(f\) of a subcontinuum of \(Y\). A continuum is \textit{indecomposable} if it is not the union of two of its proper subcontinua. A \textit{composant of \(X\) (at some point \(x\) of \(X\))} is the union of all the proper subcontinua of \(X\) to which \(x\) belongs. In the introduction the author extensively discusses the connections among the proved results and former known ones. The topological ultraproduct and ultracoproduct constructions are recalled in Section 3. Proofs in the paper use also classical notions and results from model theory: regular and good ultrafilters, the Löwenheim-Skolem theorem and the Keisler-Shelah isomorphism theorem. Some open problems are stated.