The Lelek fan as the inverse limit of intervals with a single set-valued bonding function whose graph is an arc (Q6042141)

A smooth fan is a subcontinuum of the cone over the cone of the Cantor set which is not an arc. The Lelek fan is characterized as a fan with dense set of end points. Generalized inverse limits (GILs) were introduced in [\textit{W. S. Mahavier}, Topology Appl. 141, No. 1--3, 225--231 (2004; Zbl 1078.54021)]. The simplest case for these limits is when we take a nonempty closed subset \(M\) of the unit square \([0,1]^{2}\). In this case, the generalized inverse limit \(\operatorname{lim}_{\leftarrow}M\) is defined as \(\operatorname{lim}_{\leftarrow}M=\{(x_{1},x_{2},\ldots):\) for each \(n\geq 1\), \((x_{n},x_{n+1})\in M\}\). Among many other aspects of the study of GILs, two important lines of research have been the following: (a) given a set \(M\), is it possible to describe how is the space \(\operatorname{lim}_{\leftarrow}M\)?, or at least to identify what topological properties \(\operatorname{lim}_{\leftarrow}M\) posseses; and (b) given a specific continuum (or more generally, a compact metric space) \(X\), is it possible to find a set \(M\) such that \(\operatorname{lim}_{\leftarrow}M\) is homeomorphic to \(X\)? The paper under review starts making a precise account of what has been made with respect to (b). The contribution of this paper to the study of GILs is the construction of a family of arcs \(M\) for which \(\operatorname{lim}_{\leftarrow}M\) is homeomorphic to the Lelek fan. Each such an \(M\) is surprisingly simple, it consists of the union of two convex arcs, one joining the point \((0,0)\) to a point of the form \((x,1)\) with \(0<x<1\) and the other joining the point \((0,0)\) to a point of the form \((1,y)\) with \(0<y<1\).