Small loop spaces and covering theory of non-homotopically Hausdorff spaces (Q633028)

The paper is about the universal covering spaces of topological spaces. A continuous map \(p: \widetilde{X} \rightarrow X\) is a covering map and \(\widetilde{X}\) is a covering space of \(X\) if each point \(x\in X\) has a evenly covered open neighbourhood \(U\), i.e, each path connected component of \(p^{-1}(U)\) is an open subset of \(\widetilde{X}\) and mapped topologically to \(U\). A connected topological space \(X\) has a universal covering, which covers every covering of \(X\), if and only if it is semi-locally simply connected or locally nice in brief. A simply connected covering is a universal covering. In [\textit{Z. Virk}, Topology Appl. 157, No.~2, 451--455 (2010; Zbl 1184.55004)], a loop at a point \(x\in X\) is defined as a small loop if it has a representative in each open neighbourhood of \(x\). A non-simply connected space \(X\) is called small loop space if every loop at each point \(x\in X\) is small. In the paper under review, some relations between small loop groups and fundamental groups are given. It is also proved that a small covering of a space \(X\) is a universal covering space of \(X\). Moreover it is proved that a space \(X\) has a small loop space as a covering space if and only if \(X\) is a semi-locally small loop space.