Support property of 0-dimensional compact spaces concerning Abelian groups of integer-valued continuous functions (Q2640184)

Let \(C(\Omega,R)\) be the topological Abelian group consisting of all continuous real-valued functions from a compact Hausdorff space \(\Omega\) with uniform norm. It is known that if the space \(\Omega\) does not satisfy the countable chain condition, i.e. there exists a pairwise disjoint uncountable family of nonempty open subsets, then \(\Omega\) itself cannot be a smallest compact support of any continuous group homomorphism from \(C(\Omega,R)\) to R. The author discusses an analogous situation for \(C(K,Z)\), the group of all continuous integer-valued functions from a 0-dimensional compact Hausdorff space K to the discrete group Z of integers. The main theorem is: For any 0-dimensional compact Hausdorff space K, there exists a group homomorphism \(\Phi: C(K,Z)\to Z\) such that K is the smallest compact support of \(\Phi\). This answers a question raised by \textit{S. Mrȯwa} [Bull. Acad. Polon. Sci., Ser. Sci. math. astron. phys. 20, 563-566 (1972; Zbl 0242.54007)] who has shown that if X is an N-compact space and if \(\Phi: C(X,Z)\to Z\) is a group homomorphism, then the smallest compact support of \(\Phi\) exists.