Nikiel's conjecture (Q5951983)

Monotonically normal spaces exhibit a lot of structure, so much so that \textit{J. Nikiel} [Quest. Answers Gen. Topology 4, 117-128 (1987; Zbl 0625.54039)] conjectured that every compact monotonically normal space is the continuous image of a compact ordered space. The present paper offers a proof of this conjecture, by induction on the density of the space and with a new proof for the separable case (which was dealt with in the author's paper [Topology Appl. 82, No. 1-3, 397-419 (1998; Zbl 0889.54014)]). Monotone normality can be defined by means of an operator~\(H\) that assigns to every pair \((x,U)\) with \(x\in U\) and \(U\)~open an open set \(H(x,U)\) with (i) if \(x\notin V\) and \(y\notin U\) then \(H(x,U)\cap H(y,V)=\emptyset\), and (ii) \(x\in H(x,U)\subseteq U\). Using this operator the author constructs what she calls break-downs, which are families of closed sets with a tree-like flavour. The ordered space is then obtained as a kind of branch space of this structure. This outline belies the intricate nature of the proof.