Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
Let Q denote the rationals, P the irrationals, C the Cantor set and L the space C − {p} (where p ∈ C). Let f : X → Y be a perfect continuous surjection. We show: (1) If X ∈ {Q, P, Q × P}, or if f is irreducible and X ∈ {C, L}, then Y is homeomorphic to X if Y is zero-dimensional. (2) If X ∈ {P, C, L} and f is irreducible, then there is a dense subset S of Y such that f|f ← [S] is a homeomorphism onto S. However, if Z is any σ-compact nowhere locally compact metric space then there is a perfect irreducible continuous surjection from Q × C onto Z such that each fibre of the map is homeomorphic to C.