On unicoherence and contractibility of hyperspaces of nonmetrizable continua (Q6170586)

For a Hausdorff continuum (i.e., a nondegenerate compact connected Hausdorff space) \(X\), let \(C (X)\) denote the space of all subcontinua of \(X\) endowed with the Vietoris topology. A metrizable Hausdorff continuum is called a continuum. In this paper, the author discusses generalizations of theorems on unicoherence and contractibility of \(C(X)\) for a continuum \(X\) to a Hausdorff continuum. A Hausdorff continuum \(X\) is said to be unicoherent if for any two subcontinua \(A\) and \(B\) of \(X\) with \(X=A \cup B\), the intersection \(A \cap B\) is connected. The author proves that \(C(X)\) is unicoherent for every Hausdorff continuum \(X\), which is a generalization of the theorem for continua given by \textit{S. B. Nadler jun.} [Bull. Am. Math. Soc. 76, 411--414 (1970; Zbl 0192.59901)]. A Hausdorff continuum with a compatible linear order is called a generalized arc. The quotient space obtained by identifying the endpoints of a generalized arc is called a generalized circle. In this paper, contractibility is in the sense of \textit{D. G. Paulowich} [Fundam. Math. 94, 41--47 (1977; Zbl 0343.54006)] in terms of a generalized arc instead of the unit interval. Let \(X\) be a Hausdorff continuum. For \(A, B \in C(X)\) with \(A\subsetneq B\), a subcontinuum \(\mathscr{A}\) of \(C(X)\) is called an order arc from \(A\) to \(B\) in \(C(X)\) if \(A =\bigcap \mathscr{A}\), \(B=\bigcup\mathscr{A}\), and for every \(C,D \in \mathscr{A}\) either \(C \subset D\) or \(D \subset C\). A subspace \(\mathscr{C}\subset C(X)\) is said to be contractible by order arcs in \(C(X)\) if there exists a continuous map \(F: \mathscr{C}\to C(C(X))\) such that, for each \(A \in \mathscr{C}\), \(F(A)\) is an order arc from \(A\) to \(X\). Let \(F_1(X) =\{\{x\} : x\in X \}\). The following theorems are proved: \begin{itemize} \item[(1)] If \(C(X)\) is contractible (in itself), then \(F_1(X)\) is contractible by order arcs in \(C(X)\). \item[(2)] For a continuum \(X\), \(C(X)\) is contractible (in itself) if and only if \(F_1(X)\) is contractible by order arcs in \(C(X)\). \item[(3)] If \(X\) is a generalized circle, then \(F_1(X)\) is contractible by order arcs in \(C(X)\). \end{itemize} Paulowich [loc. cit.] gave an example of a generalized circle \(Z\) such that \(C(Z)\) is not contractible (in itself). Thus the converse of (1) does not hold in general. The author also proves that if \(C(X)\) admits a selection, then \(X\) is a generalized dendroid; and that if \(X\) is hereditarily indecomposable, then \(F_1 (X)\) is contractible by order arcs in \(C(X)\).