Topological equivalences of CUT and CUT(\(\mathrm{Fin}\)) (Q334984)

A point \(x\) of a given topological space is said to have \textit{countable character} if it has a countable local base, and it is said to have \textit{countable pseudocharacter} if it has a countable local pseudobase, that is, if there exists a countable family \(\mathcal{V}_{x}\) of open sets such that \(\bigcap\mathcal{V}_{x}=\{x\}\). In the paper under review, the author establishes, in ZF (i.e., Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory without the Axiom of Choice (AC)) the following two results about cofinite and cocountable-like topologies over uncountable sets, which provide topological equivalences of the \textit{Countable Union Theorem} (CUT: ``The union of a countable family of countable sets is countable.'') and the \textit{Countable Union Theorem for countable families of finite sets} (CUT(\(\mathrm{Fin}\)): ``The union of a countable family of finite sets is countable.''), the latter principle being equivalent to \(\mathrm{AC}_{\omega}(\mathrm{Fin})\) (i.e., AC restricted to countable families of non-empty finite sets). {\parindent=0.5cm\begin{itemize}\item[--] (Theorem 2 of this paper) The following statements are equivalent: {\parindent=0.9cm\begin{itemize}\item[(i)] CUT(\(\mathrm{Fin}\)); \item[(ii)] Given any uncountable set \(X\) endowed with the cofinite topology, none of its points has countable pseudocharacter; \item[(iii)] Given any uncountable set \(X\) endowed with the cofinite topology, none of its points has countable character; \item[(iv)] For every uncountable set \(X\) with the cofinite topology, there is a point which does not have countable character. \end{itemize}} \item[--] (Theorem 3 of this paper) CUT is equivalent to the statement: ``Let \(Y\) be any uncountable set, with a distinguished element \(y_{0}\in Y\), and consider \(Y\) endowed with the topology generated by the base \[ \mathcal{B}=\{\{z\}:z\in Y\setminus\{y_{0}\}\}\cup\{W\subseteq Y:y_{0}\in W\text{ and \(Y\setminus W\) is countable\(\}\)}. \] Let \(Z\) be any \(T_{1}\) topological space with countable pseudocharacter and let \(f:Y\rightarrow Z\) be an arbitrary function. If \(f\) is continuous, then the subset of \(Y\) given by \(\{y\in Y:f(y)\neq f(y_{0})\}\) is countable.''. \end{itemize}} The paper is well-written, and with attention to details. Furthermore, a thorough discussion is given in Section 1 (Introduction) which stresses the subtle issues which concern the notion of character in ZF. This reviewer should also like to note here that the author's two results hold true if one considers any of the following two definitions of uncountable: (a) a set \(X\) is uncountable if \(|X|\not\leq\aleph_{0}\), i.e., if there is no injection \(f:X\rightarrow\omega\) (b) a set \(X\) is uncountable if \(\aleph_{0}<|X|\), i.e., if there is an injection \(f:\omega\rightarrow X\), but there is no injection \(g:X\rightarrow\omega\). The latter two definitions are equivalent in ZFC (= ZF + AC), but not equivalent in ZF; in particular, ``\(\forall X(|X|\not\leq\aleph_{0}\Longleftrightarrow\aleph_{0}<|X|)\)'' is equivalent to ``Every Dedekind-finite set is finite'', where a set \(X\) is called \textit{Dedekind-finite} if \(\aleph_{0}\not\leq |X|\).