A universal continuum of weight \(\aleph\) (Q2701682)

Parovichenko proved that every compact space of weight at most \(\omega_1\) is a continuous image of the Čech-Stone remainder of the natural numbers. It is easy to show that every compact space is a continuous image of a compact zero-dimensional space of the same weight. So to prove Parovichenko's theorem one may restrict its attention to zero-dimensional spaces. The proof can then easily be completed by proving that every Boolean algebra of cardinality at most \(\omega_1\) can be embedded in the Boolean algebra \({\mathcal P}(\omega)/ \text{fin}\), where \(\text{ fin}\) is the ideal of finite subsets of \(\omega\). In this interesting paper, the authors present a connected version of Parovichenko's theorem. They prove that every continuum of weight at most \(\omega_1\) is a continuous image of the Čech-Stone remainder of the half-line \([0,\infty)\). Obviously, Boolean algebraic considerations are useless to prove this result. Instead of Boolean algebras, the authors use Wallman representations of distributive lattices of closed sets. Their construction is by no means a straightforward generalization of Parovichenko's proof. The main result was used by \textit{F. Obersnel} [Topology Appl. 108, No. 1, 53-65 (2000; Zbl 0963.54014)] to prove that if \(C\) is any nondegenerate subcontinuum of the Čech-Stone remainder of \([0,\infty)\), then \(C\) maps onto every continuum of weight at most \(\omega_1\). The authors also consider the question whether there is a compact space of weight \(\mathfrak{c}\) which maps onto every continuum of weight \(\mathfrak{c}\). They show that it is consistent that there does not exist such a space. They end their paper by asking some natural questions. For example the following one: is there a topological characterization of the Čech-Stone remainder of the half-line \([0,\infty)\) under the continuum hypothesis?