On \(\mathcal{T}\)-closed sets (Q890071)

For a subset \(A\) of a continuum (i.e., a compact connected metric space) \(X\), let \({\mathcal T}(A)\) denote the set of all points \(x \in X\) such that every continuum neighborhood of \(x\) meets \(A\). This defines a set function \({\mathcal T}\), which was introduced by Davis, Stadtlander and Swingle [\textit{H. S. Davis} et al., Port. Math. 21, 113--133 (1962; Zbl 0107.40101)] related to a theorem of \textit{F. B. Jones} [Am. J. Math. 70, 403--413 (1948; Zbl 0035.10904)]. In this paper, the authors introduce the notion of \({\mathcal T}\)-closed sets and study its properties. A subset \(A\) of a continuum \(X\) is said to be \({\mathcal T}\)-closed if \({\mathcal T} (A) =A\). The authors prove theorems on the set \(\mathfrak{T}(X)\) of all \({\mathcal T}\)-closed sets of a continuum \(X\), and give characterizations of \({\mathcal T}\)-closed sets. For example, it is proved that \(\mathfrak{T}(X)\) is a \(G_\delta\) subset of the hyperspace \(2^X\) consisting of all closed subsets of a continuum \(X\) with the Hausdorff metric. They also introduce and investigate a new set function \({\mathcal T}^\infty\), which is defined by putting \({\mathcal T}^\infty (A) =\bigcap\{B \in \mathfrak{T}(X) : A \subset B \}\) for a subset \(A\) of a continuum \(X\), and the notion of \({\mathcal T}\)-growth bound of a continuum \(X\), which is the smallest ordinal \(\alpha\) such that \({\mathcal T}^\infty (A) = {\mathcal T}^\alpha (A)\) for all subsets \(A\) of \(X\).