On open-separated sequences (Q6918658)

The starting point of this paper is the inequality from \textit{A. Bella} [Quest. Answers Gen. Topology 42, No. 2, 65--67 (2024; Zbl 1569.54005)], which states that for a regular space \(X\) one has \(\vert X\vert \le hL(X)^{F(X)\psi(X)}\). This improves the inequality \(\vert X\vert \le2^{\psi(X)F(X)L(X)}\) from \textit{S. Spadaro} [Topology Appl. 158, No. 16, 2091--2093 (2011; Zbl 1229.54004)], which in turn improves the inequality \(\vert X\vert \le2^{hL(X)}\) generally attributed to \textit{Yu. M. Smirnov} [Izv. Akad. Nauk SSSR, Ser. Mat. 14, 155--178 (1950; Zbl 0040.09605)] and \textit{J. de Groot} [Bull. Acad. Pol. Sci., Sér. Sci. Math. Astron. Phys. 13, 537--544 (1965; Zbl 0136.19404)]. The improvement is partial since the latter two inequalities are valid for Hausdorff spaces and the paper aims to shed more light on the (still open) problem of whether Bella's inequality is valid for Hausdorff spaces.\par To this end the authors define a sequence \(\langle x_\alpha:\alpha\in\kappa\rangle\) in a space to be open-separated if for every \(\alpha\) the segments \(\{x_\beta:\beta<\alpha\}\) and \(\{x_\beta:\beta\ge\alpha\}\) can be separated by open sets; the associated cardinal function, \(os(X)\), is defined to be the supremum of cardinalities of open-separated sequences. They observe that \(os(X)\le F(X)\) if \(X\) is normal and \(F(X)\le os(X)\) if \(X\) is extremally disconnected. Furthermore they note that the Katětov extension \(\kappa\mathbb{N}\) of the discrete space of natural numbers satisfies \(os(\kappa\mathbb{N})<F(\kappa\mathbb{N})\) and describe, under CH, a regular space \(X\) with \(os(X)<F(X)\).\par The principal result of the paper is the inequality \(\vert X\vert \le hL(X)^{os(X)\psi_c(X)}\) for Hausdorff \(X\) and a comparison of this with Bella's bound. The last section shows that \(nw(X)\le hL(X)^{os(X)}\) when \(X\) is regular, with some further corollaries for pseudoradial and almost radial spaces.