A dichotomy for spaces near dimension zero (Q6110056)

All spaces are assumed to be separable metric spaces. A space \(X\) is \textit{almost zero-dimensional} if there exists a base \(\mathcal{B}\) for \(X\) such that for each \(B\in\mathcal{B}\), \(X\setminus \overline{B}\) is a union of clopen subsets of \(X\). The dimension of an almost zero-dimensional space is at most 1. The standard example of an almost zero-dimensional space which is not zero-dimensional, is Erdős space. A space \(X\) is \textit{weakly 1-dimensional} if it is 1-dimensional, but its dimensional kernel \(\Lambda(X)=\{x\in X:X\) is 1-dimensional at \(x\}\) is of dimension 0. The first examples of weakly 1-dimensional spaces were constructed by Sierpiński. Constructions of weakly 1-dimensional spaces have been recently featured in [\textit{J. van Mill} and \textit{R. Pol}, Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 113, No. 2, 581--585 (1991; Zbl 0735.54015); \textit{A. Dow} and \textit{K. P. Hart}, Topology Appl. 154, No. 12, 2449--2456 (2007; Zbl 1181.54039); \textit{J. van Mill}, The infinite-dimensional topology of function spaces. Amsterdam: Elsevier (2001; Zbl 0969.54003)]. It is easy to show that both almost zero-dimensional spaces and weakly 1-dimensional spaces are totally disconnected. It is known that arbitrary products of these spaces are at most 1-dimensional [\textit{J. van Mill} and \textit{R. Pol}, Topology Appl. 142, No. 1--3, 31--48 (2004; Zbl 1062.54035)], and there are universal elements in each class [\textit{J. J. Dijkstra} and \textit{J. van Mill}, Erdős space and homeomorphism groups of manifolds. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society (AMS) (2010; Zbl 1204.57041); \textit{J. van Mill} and \textit{R. Pol}, Monatsh. Math. 132, No. 1, 25--33 (2001; Zbl 0988.54036)]. In this paper, the author shows that the two classes are disjoint. In fact, he proves that \textbf{Theorem 1.} If \(X\) is almost zero-dimensional, then \(\dim\Lambda(X)=\dim X\). Thus there are no weakly 1-dimensional and almost zero-dimensional spaces. As corollaries, he also obtains the following results: \textbf{Corollary 2.} If \(X\) is a hereditarily locally connected space (e.g. an \(\mathbb{R}\)-tree), then \(\dim\Lambda(X)=\dim Y\) for every subspace \(Y\) of \(X\). Thus \(X\) does not contain a weakly 1-dimensional space. \textbf{Corollary 3.} If \(X\) is a smooth fan, then \(\dim\Lambda(X)=\dim Y\) for every subspace \(Y\) of \(E(X)\), where \(E(X)\) is the set of all endpoints of \(X\). Thus \(E(X)\) does not contain a weakly 1-dimensional space.