On non-separable components of hyperspaces with Hausdorff metric (Q650796)

Let \((X,d)\) be a metric space. Denote by \(\mathcal F(X)\) the set of all nonempty subsets of \(X\) equipped with the Hausdorff distance. The main result of the paper is the following: Theorem. Let \((X,d)\) be a connected, boundedly compact (i.e. any closed and bounded subset is compact), not compact, convex metric space. If \(\mathcal H\) is a component of \(\mathcal F(X)\) not containing bounded subsets of \(X\), then \(\mathcal H\) is homeomorphic to \(\ell^2(2^{\aleph_0})\). Since, under the hypotheses of the above theorem, any component \(\mathcal H\) of \(\mathcal F(X)\), when carrying the Hausdorff distance, is an absolute retract, the result is obtained by using the topological characterization of \(\ell^2(2^{\aleph_0})\) due to H. Toruńczyk and, through several intermediate steps, by acquiring the following: Lemma. Let \(\mathcal H\) be a component of \(\mathcal F(X)\), let \(A\) be a set of cardinality \(2^{\aleph_0}\) and, for each \(\alpha \in A\), \(K_\alpha\) a simplicial complex of finite dimension. If \(f :\bigoplus_{\alpha\in A} K_\alpha\to \mathcal H\) and \(\epsilon: \mathcal H \to[0,1]\) are continuous functions then there exists a continuous function \(g: \bigoplus_{\alpha\in A} K_\alpha \to \mathcal H\) which is \(\epsilon\)-close to \(f\) and such that \(\{ g(K_\alpha) : \alpha\in A \}\) is discrete in \(\mathcal H\). (The symbol \(\oplus\) denotes the topological sum operation. When two continuous functions \(f, g : Y \to (X, d)\) and a continuous function \(\epsilon: X \to [0,1 ]\) are given, then \(g\) is \(\epsilon\)-close to \(f\) if \(d(f(x),g(x)) < \epsilon (f(x))\) for each \(x \in X\).) The above theorem definitively determines the structure of \(\mathcal F(X)\). Under its hypotheses, components of \(\mathcal F(X)\) are open, so \(\mathcal F(X)\) is the topological sum of its components. The set of all closed and bounded subsets of \(X\) is a component of \(\mathcal F(X)\), which, as already known, is homeomorphic to the Hilbert cube minus a point. The set of all components of \(\mathcal F(X)\) consisting of unbounded closed subsets has cardinality of the continuum. Any component of \(\mathcal F(X)\) not containing any closed bounded subset of \(X\) is homeomorphic to \(\ell^2(2^{\aleph_0})\).