On the Chatyrko-Hattori solution of de Groot's question (Q2565570)

Only separable and metrizable spaces are considered. The author is concerned with the small inductive compactness degree, cmp, which was defined by de Groot as a generalization of rim-compactness. (A space is called rim-compact if it has a base of open sets \(U\) with Bd\,\(U\) compact). Recall that for a space \(X\): (i) \(\operatorname{cmp}X=-1\) if and only if \(X\) is compact, and (ii) \(\operatorname{cmp} X\leq n\) \((n\geq 0)\) if every point of \(X\) has arbitrarily small neighborhoods \(U\) with cmp Bd \(U\leq n-1\). One can find a nice discussion of this and related concepts as well as several references to the literature in [\textit{V. Chatyrko}, Topology Appl. 152, 269--274 (2005; Zbl 1080.54024)] as well as in the current paper. However, the reader will find some difficulty understanding the paragraph (p. 312) immediately preceding Question 1 because of some apparently inadvertent typographical errors. This paper deals with the examples \(Z_n=([0,1]^n\times(0,1])\cup(\partial([0,1]^n\times\{0\})\), \(n\geq 1\). It had been asked by de Groot if cmp \(Z_n\geq n\) for all \(n\). The answer is yes for \(n\in\{1,2\}\) and no for \(n\geq 5\), the latter having been demonstrated by \textit{V. Chatyrko} and \textit{Y. Hattori} [Fundam. Math. 172, 107--115 (2002; Zbl 0995.54030)]. The main result of this paper is to show that the answer is also no for \(n=4\), leaving the question for \(n=3\) open.