Dendrites with a closed set of end points (Q5939003)

The order of a point \(x\) in a dendrite \(X\) is the number of arcs emanating from \(x\) and disjoint out of \(x\) (equivalently, the number of components of \(X \smallsetminus \{x\}\)). Points of order 1 are called end points, points of order 3 or more are called ramification points. In this paper, dendrites with a closed set of end points are characterized. These dendrites are exactly those that do not contain dendrites of two special types. For each integer \(n \geq 3\), a universal dendrite, \(G^n \), in the class of dendrites with a closed set of end points and orders of ramification points less than or equal to \(n\) is constructed. The dendrite \(G^n \) is topologically characterized as follows: each of its ramification points is of order \(n\) and the set of its end points is homeomorphic to the Cantor set. Then, an uncountable family of universal dendrites \(G(r)\) in the class of all dendrites with a closed set of end points is constructed. Open and monotone images of dendrites with a closed set of end points are investigated. Among others it is proved that: (1) a dendrite \(X\) is an open image of some dendrite with a closed set of end points iff \(X\) can be embedded in some universal dendrite \(G(r)\) in such a way that \(X\) is an open retract of \(G(r)\), and (2) a dendrite \(X\) is a monotone image of a dendrite with a closed set of end points iff \(X\) is a monotone image of \(G^3 \).