# On a stronger form of hereditary compactness in product spaces1991 Math. Subject Classification — Primary: 54B10, 54D30; Secondary: 54A05, 54G99. Key words and phrases — sg-compact, hereditarily compact, 𝐶₂-space, semi-open, sg-open, sg-closed, hsg-closed.

## 1 Introduction

If a topological space $`(X,\tau )`$ is hereditarily compact, then under some additional assumptions either $`X`$ or $`\tau `$ might become finite (or countable). For example, if $`(X,\tau )`$ is a second countable hereditarily compact space, then $`\tau `$ is finite. Hence, if $`(X,\tau )`$ is a second countable hereditarily compact $`T_0`$-space, then $`X`$ must be countable. Moreover, it is well-known that every maximally hereditarily compact space and every hereditarily compact Hausdorff (even kc-) space is finite. For more information about hereditarily compact spaces we refer the reader to A.H. Stone’s paper .

In 1995 and in 1996, a stronger form of hereditary compactness was introduced independently in three different papers. Caldas , Devi, Balachandran and Maki  and Tapi, Thakur and Sonwalkar  considered topological spaces in which every cover by sg-open sets has a finite subcover. These spaces have been called sg-compact and were further studied by the present authors in .

As the property sg-compactness is much stronger than hereditary compactness (for even spaces with finite topologies need not be sg-compact), the general behavior of sg-compactness becomes more ‘unusual’ than the one of hereditarily compact spaces. This will be especially the case in product spaces.

It is well-known that the finite product of hereditarily compact spaces is hereditarily compact, and that if a product space is hereditarily compact, then every factor space is hereditarily compact. What we want to show here is the following: If the product space of an arbitrary family of spaces is sg-compact, then all but one factor spaces must be finite and the remaining one must be (at most) sg-compact. Maki, Balachandran and Devi \[14, Theorem 3,7\] showed (under the additional assumption that the product space satisfies the weak separation axiom $`T_{gs}`$) that if the product of two spaces is sg-compact, then every factor space is sg-compact. Tapi, Thakur and Sonwalkar \[17, Theorem 2.7\] stated the result for two spaces but their proof is wrong as they claimed that the projection mapping is sg-irresolute. They used a wrong lemma from  saying that the product of sg-closed sets is sg-closed (we will show that this is not true even for two sets).

We recall some definitions. A set $`A`$ is called semi-open if $`A\mathrm{cl}(\mathrm{int}(A))`$ and semi-closed if $`\mathrm{int}(\mathrm{cl}(A))A`$. The semi-interior (resp. semi-kernel) of $`A`$, denoted by $`\mathrm{sint}(A)`$ (resp. $`\mathrm{sker}(A)`$, is the union (resp. intersection) of all semi-open subsets (resp. supersets) of $`A`$. The semi-closure of $`A`$, denoted by $`\mathrm{scl}(A)`$, is the intersection of all semi-closed supersets of $`A`$. A subset $`A`$ of a topological space $`(X,\tau )`$ is called sg-open  (resp. g-open ) if every semi-closed (resp. closed) subset of $`A`$ is included in the semi-interior (resp. interior) of $`A`$. A topological space $`(X,\tau )`$ is called sg-compact  (resp. go-compact ) if every cover of $`X`$ by sg-open (resp. g-open) sets has a finite subcover.

Complements of sg-open sets are called sg-closed. Alternatively, a subset $`A`$ of a topological space $`(X,\tau )`$ is called sg-closed if $`\mathrm{scl}(A)\mathrm{sker}(A)`$. If every subset of $`A`$ is also sg-closed in $`(X,\tau )`$, then $`A`$ is called hereditarily sg-closed (= hsg-closed) . Every nowhere dense subset is hsg-closed but not conversely.

Janković and Reilly \[11, Lemma 2\] pointed out that in an arbitrary topological space every singleton is either nowhere dense or locally dense. Recall that a set $`A`$ is said to be locally dense  (= preopen) if $`A\mathrm{int}(\mathrm{cl}(A))`$. We will make significant use of their result throughout this paper.

###### Lemma 1.1

For a topological space $`(X,\tau )`$ the following conditions are equivalent:

(i) $`X`$ is locally indiscrete.

(ii) Every singleton is locally dense.

(ii) Every subset is sg-open.

###### Lemma 1.2

(i) Every open continuous surjective function is pre-semi-open, i.e., it preserves semi-open sets.

(ii) Let $`(X_i)_{iI}`$ be a family of spaces and $`\mathrm{}A_iX_i`$ for each $`iI`$. Then, $`_{iI}A_i`$ is preopen (resp. semi-open) in $`_{iI}X_i`$ if and only if $`A_i`$ is preopen (resp. semi-open) in $`X_i`$ for each $`iI`$ and $`A_i`$ is non-dense (resp. $`A_iX_i`$) for only finitely many $`iI`$.

(iii) If $`f:(X,\tau )(Y,\sigma )`$ is open and continuous, then the preimage of every nowhere dense subset of $`Y`$ is nowhere dense in $`X`$, i.e., $`f`$ is $`\delta `$-open.

###### Lemma 1.3

\[7, Theorem 2.6\] For a topological space $`(X,\tau )`$ the following conditions are equivalent:

(1) $`X`$ is sg-compact.

(2) $`X`$ is a $`C_3`$-space, i.e., every hsg-closed set is finite.

###### Lemma 1.4

\[7, Proposition 2.1\] For a subset $`A`$ of a topological space $`(X,\tau )`$ the following conditions are equivalent:

(1) $`A`$ is hsg-closed.

(2) $`N(X)\mathrm{int}(\mathrm{cl}(A))=\mathrm{}`$, where $`N(X)`$ denotes the set of nowhere dense singletons in $`X`$.

## 2 Sg-compactness in product spaces

We will start with an example showing that Theorem 2.1 of  is not true. There, the authors stated (without proof) that every sg-compact space is go-compact (it is our guess that they assumed that g-open sets are sg-open).

###### Example 2.1

Let $``$ be set of all positive integers. We consider the following topology $`\tau `$ on $``$ given by $`\tau =\{\mathrm{},\}\{U_n=\{n,n+1,n+2,\mathrm{}\}:n3\}`$.

We first show that $`(,\tau )`$ is sg-compact. Observe that every singleton of $`(,\tau )`$ is nowhere dense. Since every nonempty semi-open set has finite complement, $`(,\tau )`$ is semi-compact. By \[7, Remark 2.7 (i)\], $`(,\tau )`$ is sg-compact.

However, every singleton of $`(,\tau )`$ is g-open, and so $`(,\tau )`$ fails to be go-compact.

###### Lemma 2.2

Let $`X=_{iI}X_i`$ be a product space. If infinitely many $`X_i`$ are not indiscrete, then $`X`$ contains an infinite nowhere dense subset.

Proof. Let $`J`$ be an infinite subset of $`I`$ such that $`X_i`$ is not indiscrete for each $`iJ`$. We may choose $`J`$ in such a way that $`IJ`$ is also infinite. Then, for each $`iJ`$, there exists a closed set $`A_iX_i`$ distinct from the empty set and from $`X_i`$. Now form the product of all $`A_i`$, $`iJ`$, and of all $`X_i`$, $`iJ`$, and call it $`A`$. Then $`A`$ is closed in $`X`$, infinite and clearly nowhere dense. $`\mathrm{}`$

As a consequence of Lemma 1.3 we therefore have:

###### Corollary 2.3

If a product space $`X=_{iI}X_i`$ is sg-compact, then only finitely many $`X_i`$ are not indiscrete. $`\mathrm{}`$

###### Theorem 2.4

Let $`(X_i,\tau _i)_{iI}`$ be a family of topological spaces. If the product space $`X=_{iI}X_i`$ is sg-compact, then either all factor spaces are finite or exactly one of them is infinite and sg-compact and the rest are finite and locally indiscrete.

Proof. Suppose that two factor spaces, say $`X_i`$ and $`X_j`$, are infinite. Let $`p_i`$ denotes the projection from $`X`$ onto $`X_i`$ for any $`iI`$. Let $`kI`$. If $`x_kX_k`$, then $`p_k^1(\{x_k\})`$ is infinite, hence cannot be nowhere dense since $`X`$ is sg-compact. Thus $`\{x_k\}`$ is not nowhere dense in $`X_k`$. Consequently, each factor space $`X_k`$ must be locally indiscrete. By Corollary 2.3 and Lemma 1.2, each singleton in $`X`$ is locally dense and so every subset of $`X`$ is sg-open. Since $`X`$ is sg-compact, $`X`$ must be finite, a contradiction. Hence, at most one factor space can be infinite.

Now suppose that $`X_j`$ is infinite and that $`X_i`$ is finite for $`ij`$. For each $`x_iX_i`$, where $`ij`$, $`p_i^1(\{x_i\})`$ is infinite, therefore $`\{x_i\}`$ cannot be nowhere dense in $`X_i`$. So $`X_i`$ is locally indiscrete for $`ij`$. By Corollary 2.3 and Lemma 1.2 it follows that for each $`xX`$, $`\{x\}`$ is nowhere dense in $`X`$ if and only if $`\{x_j\}`$ is nowhere dense in $`X_j`$.

Assume now that $`X_j`$ is not sg-compact. Then $`X_j`$ contains an infinite hsg-closed subset, say $`A_j`$. Let $`A=p_j^1(A_j)`$. We want to show that $`N(X)\mathrm{int}(\mathrm{cl}(A))=\mathrm{}`$, where $`N(X)`$ denotes the set of nowhere dense singletons in $`X`$. If there exists a point $`xN(X)\mathrm{int}(\mathrm{cl}(A))`$, then $`x`$ has an open neighbourhood $`W`$ contained in $`\mathrm{cl}(A)`$. Also, $`\{x_j\}`$ is nowhere dense in $`X_j`$ and $`x_jp_j(W)p_j(\mathrm{cl}(A))\mathrm{cl}(A_j)`$. So $`x_j\mathrm{int}(\mathrm{cl}(A_j))`$, a contradiction to the hsg-closedness of $`A_j`$. Hence, by Lemma 1.4, $`A`$ is hsg-closed and infinite, a contradiction. Therefore, $`X_j`$ is sg-compact. $`\mathrm{}`$

Tapi, Thakur and Sonwalkar \[17, Theorem 2.7\] stated our result for two topological spaces but their proof is wrong as they claimed the projection mapping being sg-irresolute. They used the wrong lemma from  that the product of sg-closed sets is sg-closed. The following example will correct their claims.

###### Example 2.5

Let $`X=\{a,b,c\}`$ and let $`\tau =\{\mathrm{},\{a,b\},X\}`$. Set $`A=\{b,c\}`$.

(i) First observe that $`A`$ is sg-closed in $`(X,\tau )`$ but $`A\times A`$ is not sg-closed in $`X\times X`$, since $`A\times AX\times X\{(a,c)\}`$ and $`\mathrm{scl}(A\times A)=X\times X`$.

(ii) If $`p`$ is the projection mapping from $`X\times X`$ onto $`X`$, then $`p^1(A)`$ is not sg-closed in $`X\times X`$, i.e., the projection map need not be always sg-irresolute.

(iii) We already noted that if $`f:(X,\tau )(Y,\sigma )`$ is open and continuous, then the preimage of every nowhere dense subset of $`Y`$ is nowhere dense in $`X`$. There is no similar result for hsg-closed sets. If $`\sigma `$ denotes the indiscrete topology on $`X`$, then $`S=\{a,b\}`$ is hsg-closed in $`(X,\sigma )`$ but $`q^1(S)`$ is not hsg-closed in $`(X,\sigma )\times (X,\tau )`$, where $`q`$ denotes the projection mapping from $`(X,\sigma )\times (X,\tau )`$ onto $`(X,\sigma )`$.

The following result shows when the inverse image of a hsg-closed set is also hsg-closed. Recall that a function $`f:(X,\tau )(Y,\sigma )`$ is called almost open if the image of every regular open set is open. We say that $`f:(X,\tau )(Y,\sigma )`$ is anti-$`\delta `$-open if the image of every nowhere dense singleton is nowhere dense. Observe that if $`Y`$ is dense-in-itself and $`T_D`$ (= singletons are locally dense), then $`f:(X,\tau )(Y,\sigma )`$ is always anti-$`\delta `$-open; in particular every real-valued function is anti-$`\delta `$-open.

###### Proposition 2.6

If $`f:(X,\tau )(Y,\sigma )`$ is an almost open, continuous, anti-$`\delta `$-open surjection, then the inverse image of every hsg-closed set is hsg-closed.

Proof. Let $`B`$ be hsg-closed in $`Y`$ and set $`A=f^1(B)`$. If for some nowhere dense singleton $`x`$ of $`X`$ we have $`x\mathrm{int}(\mathrm{cl}(A))`$, then $`f(x)f(\mathrm{int}(\mathrm{cl}(A)))\mathrm{int}(f(\mathrm{cl}(A)))\mathrm{int}(\mathrm{cl}(f(A)))=\mathrm{int}(\mathrm{cl}(B))`$. Since $`f(x)`$ is nowhere dense in $`Y`$, $`B`$ is not hsg-closed. By contradiction, $`A`$ is hsg-closed. $`\mathrm{}`$

###### Remark 2.7

(i) Let $`A`$ be an infinite set with $`pA`$. Let $`X=A\{p\}`$ and $`\tau =\{\mathrm{},A,X\}`$. We observed in  that $`X\times X`$ contains an infinite nowhere dense subset, so even the finite product of sg-compact spaces need not be sg-compact.

(ii) It is rather unexpected that the projection map fails to be sg-irresolute in general, since it is always irresolute and gs-irresolute.

The two examples of infinite sg-compact spaces in  and the infinite sg-compact space from Example 2.1 are not even weakly Hausdorff (however one of them is $`T_1`$). As every hereditarily compact kc-space must be finite, it is natural to ask whether there are any infinite sg-compact semi-Hausdorff spaces (there do exist infinite hereditarily compact semi-Hausdorff spaces). Recall here that a topological space $`(X,\tau )`$ is called semi-Hausdorff  if every two distinct points of $`X`$ can be separated by disjoint semi-open sets.

Recall additionally that a space $`(X,\tau )`$ is called hyperconnected if every open subset of $`X`$ is dense, or equivalently, every pair of nonempty open sets has nonempty intersection. In the opposite case $`X`$ is called hyperdisconnected. If every infinite open subspace of $`X`$ is hyperdisconnected, then we will say that $`X`$ is quasi-hyperdisconnected. Note that not only Hausdorff spaces but also semi-Hausdorff spaces are quasi-hyperdisconnected (but not vice versa).

###### Proposition 2.8

Every quasi-hyperdisconnected sg-compact space $`(X,\tau )`$ is finite.

Proof. Assume that $`X`$ is infinite. Let $`U`$ and $`V`$ be disjoint non-empty open subsets of $`X`$. Note that either $`XU`$ or $`XV`$ is infinite. Assume that $`XU`$ is infinite. Since $`\mathrm{cl}(U)U`$ is hsg-closed (in fact even nowhere dense), by Lemma 1.3, $`\mathrm{cl}(U)U`$ is finite and hence $`X\mathrm{cl}(U)`$ is infinite and open. Set $`A_1=U`$. Since $`X`$ is quasi-hyperdisconnected, proceeding as above, we can construct an open subset of $`X\mathrm{cl}(U)`$ and hence of $`X`$, say $`U_2`$, such that the complement of the closure of $`U_2`$ in $`X\mathrm{cl}(A_1)`$ is infinite. Using the method above, we can construct an infinite pairwise disjoint family $`A_1,A_2,\mathrm{}`$ of non-empty open subsets of $`(X,\tau )`$. Since sg-compact spaces are semi-compact and thus satisfy the finite chain condition, $`X`$ must be finite. $`\mathrm{}`$

###### Corollary 2.9

Every sg-compact, semi-Hausdorff space is finite.

We have just seen that under some very low separation axioms, sg-compact spaces very easily become finite. If we replace the weak separation axiom with a weaker form of strong irresolvability, we again have finiteness. By definition, a nonempty topological space $`(X,\tau )`$ is called resolvable  if $`X`$ is the disjoint union of two dense (or equivalently codense) subsets. In the opposite case $`X`$ is called irresolvable. A topological space $`(X,\tau )`$ is strongly irresolvable  if no nonempty open set is resolvable.

###### Proposition 2.10

Every sg-compact space $`(X,\tau )`$ which is the topological sum of a locally indiscrete space and a strongly irresolvable space is finite.

Proof. We will use a result in  which states that a space is finite if and only if every cover by $`\beta `$-open sets (i.e., sets which are dense in some regular closed subspace) has a finite subcover. If $`𝒰`$ is a cover of $`X`$ by $`\beta `$-open sets, then by \[4, Theorem 2.1\] every element of $`𝒰`$ is sg-open. Since $`X`$ is sg-compact, $`𝒰`$ has a finite subcover. This shows that $`X`$ is finite. $`\mathrm{}`$

We already mentioned in Remark 2.7 that the product of two sg-compact spaces need not be sg-compact. Thus we have the natural question: When is the product of two sg-compact spaces also sg-compact? What turns out is that only in one very special case the product of a sg-compact space with another sg-compact space is also sg-compact. First we note a result whose proof is easy and hence omitted.

###### Proposition 2.11

Let $`(X_\alpha ,\tau _\alpha )_{\alpha \mathrm{\Omega }}`$ be a family of topological spaces. For the topological sum $`X=_{\alpha \mathrm{\Omega }}X_\alpha `$ the following conditions are equivalent:

(1) $`X`$ is a sg-compact space.

(2) Each $`X_\alpha `$ is a sg-compact space and $`|\mathrm{\Omega }|<\mathrm{}_0`$.

###### Lemma 2.12

Let $`(X,\tau )`$ be any space and let $`(Y,\sigma )`$ be indiscrete. Let $`AX\times Y`$ and let $`p:X\times YX`$ denote the projection. Then $`\mathrm{int}(\mathrm{cl}(A))=\mathrm{int}(\mathrm{cl}(p(A)))\times Y`$.

Proof. If $`(x,y)\mathrm{int}(\mathrm{cl}(A))`$, there exists an open neighbourhood $`U_x`$ of $`x`$ such that $`U_x\times Y\mathrm{cl}(A)`$. Then $`xp(U_x)\mathrm{cl}(p(A))`$ and so $`(x,y)\mathrm{int}(\mathrm{cl}(p(A)))\times Y`$.

Now, let $`x\mathrm{int}(\mathrm{cl}(p(A)))`$ and $`yY`$. Choose an open set $`U_xX`$ containing $`x`$ such that $`U_x\mathrm{cl}(p(A))`$. We claim that $`U_x\times Y\mathrm{cl}(A)`$. Suppose there is a point $`(x^{},y^{})U_x\times Y`$ not in $`\mathrm{cl}(A)`$. Then there exists an open set $`W_x^{}U_x`$ containing $`x^{}`$ such that $`(W_x^{}\times Y)A=\mathrm{}`$. Consequently, $`W_x^{}p(A)=\mathrm{}`$, a contradiction. Hence, $`(x,y)\mathrm{int}(\mathrm{cl}(A))`$. $`\mathrm{}`$

###### Theorem 2.13

If $`(X,\tau )`$ is sg-compact and $`(Y,\sigma )`$ is finite and locally indiscrete, then $`X\times Y`$ is sg-compact.

Proof. Since $`Y`$ is a finite topological sum of indiscrete spaces, by Proposition 2.11 it suffices to assume that $`Y`$ is indiscrete. Suppose that $`AX\times Y`$ is infinite and hsg-closed. Then, $`p(A)`$ is infinite and hence, by Lemma 1.3 and Lemma 1.4, we have $`N(X)\mathrm{int}(\mathrm{cl}(p(A)))\mathrm{}`$. Pick $`xN(X)\mathrm{int}(\mathrm{cl}(p(A)))`$ and $`yY`$. Then, $`\{(x,y)\}`$ is nowhere dense in $`X\times Y`$ and, by Lemma 2.12, we have $`(x,y)\mathrm{int}(\mathrm{cl}(A))`$, a contradiction to the hsg-closedness of $`A`$. Thus $`X\times Y`$ is sg-compact. $`\mathrm{}`$

E-mail: dontchev@cc.helsinki.fi, ganster@weyl.math.tu-graz.ac.at