For a space X let $\mathcal {K}(X)$ be the set of compact subsets of X ordered by inclusion. A map $\phi :\mathcal {K}(X) \to \mathcal {K}(Y)$ is a relative Tukey quotient if it carries compact covers to compact covers. When there is such a Tukey quotient write $(X,\mathcal {K}(X)) \ge _T (Y,\mathcal {K}(Y))$, and write $(X,\mathcal {K}(X)) =_T (Y,\mathcal {K}(Y))$ if $(X,\mathcal {K}(X)) \ge _T (Y,\mathcal {K}(Y))$ and vice versa.

We investigate the initial structure of pairs $(X,\mathcal {K}(X))$ under the relative Tukey order, focussing on the case of separable metrizable spaces. Connections are made to Menger spaces.

Applications are given demonstrating the diversity of free topological groups, and related free objects, over separable metrizable spaces. It is shown a topological group G has the countable chain condition if it is either $\sigma $-pseudocompact or for some separable metrizable M, we have $\mathcal {K}(M) \ge _T (G,\mathcal {K}(G))$.

For a path-connected metric space $(X,d)$, the $n$-th homotopy group $\pi _n(X)$ inherits a natural pseudometric from the $n$-th iterated loop space with the uniform metric. This pseudometric gives $\pi _n(X)$ the structure of a topological group, and when $X$ is compact, the induced pseudometric topology is independent of the metric $d$. In this paper, we study the properties of this pseudometric and how it relates to previously studied structures on $\pi _n(X)$. Our main result is that the pseudometric topology agrees with the shape topology on $\pi _n(X)$ if $X$ is compact and $LC^{n-1}$ or if $X$ is an inverse limit of finite polyhedra with retraction bonding maps.

Any Lipschitz map $f : M \to N$ between two pointed metric spaces may be extended in a unique way to a bounded linear operator $\widehat {f} : \mathcal {F}(M) \to \mathcal {F}(N)$ between their corresponding Lipschitz-free spaces. In this paper, we give a necessary and sufficient condition for $\widehat {f}$ to be compact in terms of metric conditions on $f$. This extends a result by A. Jiménez-Vargas and M. Villegas-Vallecillos in the case of non-separable and unbounded metric spaces. After studying the behaviour of weakly convergent sequences made of finitely supported elements in Lipschitz-free spaces, we also deduce that $\widehat {f}$ is compact if and only if it is weakly compact.

Using the category of metric spaces as a template, we develop a metric analogue of the categorical semantics of classical/intuitionistic logic, and show that the natural notion of predicate in this “continuous semantics” is equivalent to the a priori separate notion of predicate in continuous logic, a logic which is independently well-studied by model theorists and which finds various applications. We show this equivalence by exhibiting the real interval $[0,1]$ in the category of metric spaces as a “continuous subobject classifier” giving a correspondence not only between the two notions of predicate, but also between the natural notion of quantification in the continuous semantics and the existing notion of quantification in continuous logic.

Along the way, we formulate what it means for a given category to behave like the category of metric spaces, and afterwards show that any such category supports the aforementioned continuous semantics. As an application, we show that categories of presheaves of metric spaces are examples of such, and in fact even possess continuous subobject classifiers.

To study when a paratopological group becomes a topological group, Arhangel’skii et al. [‘Topological games and topologies on groups’, Math. Maced. 8 (2010), 1–19] introduced the class of $(\,\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD},G_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6F1}})$-unfavourable spaces. We show that every $\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}$-complete (or normal) $(\,\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD},G_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6F1}})$-unfavourable semitopological group is a topological group. We prove that the product of a $(\,\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD},G_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6F1}})$-unfavourable space and a strongly Fréchet $(\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC},G_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6F1}})$-favourable space is $(\,\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD},G_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6F1}})$-unfavourable. We also show that continuous closed irreducible mappings preserve the $(\,\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD},G_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6F1}})$-unfavourableness in both directions.

This paper investigates topological reconstruction, related to the reconstruction conjecture in graph theory. We ask whether the homeomorphism types of subspaces of a space X which are obtained by deleting singletons determine X uniquely up to homeomorphism. If the question can be answered affirmatively, such a space is called reconstructible. We prove that in various cases topological properties can be reconstructed. As main result we find that familiar spaces such as the reals ℝ, the rationals ℚ and the irrationals ℙ are reconstructible, as well as spaces occurring as Stone–Čech compactifications. Moreover, some non-reconstructible spaces are discovered, amongst them the Cantor set C.

We define a pseudometric on the set of all unbounded subsets of a metric space. The Kolmogorov quotient of this pseudometric space is a complete metric space. The definition of the pseudometric is guided by the principle that two unbounded subsets have distance 0 whenever they stay sublinearly close. Based on this pseudometric we introduce and study a general concept of boundaries of metric spaces. Such a boundary is the closure of a subset in the Kolmogorov quotient determined by an arbitrarily chosen family of unbounded subsets. Our interest lies in those boundaries which we get by choosing unbounded cyclic sub(semi)groups of a finitely generated group (or more general of a compactly generated, locally compact Hausdorff group). We show that these boundaries are quasi-isometric invariants and determine them in the case of nilpotent groups as a disjoint union of certain spheres (or projective spaces). In addition we apply this concept to vertex-transitive graphs with polynomial growth and to random walks on nilpotent groups.

An uncountable cardinal κ is called ${\omega _1}$-strongly compact if every κ-complete ultrafilter on any set I can be extended to an ${\omega _1}$-complete ultrafilter on I. We show that the first ${\omega _1}$-strongly compact cardinal, ${\kappa _0}$, cannot be a successor cardinal, and that its cofinality is at least the first measurable cardinal. We prove that the Singular Cardinal Hypothesis holds above ${\kappa _0}$. We show that the product of Lindelöf spaces is κ-Lindelöf if and only if $\kappa \ge {\kappa _0}$. Finally, we characterize ${\kappa _0}$ in terms of second order reflection for relational structures and we give some applications. For instance, we show that every first-countable nonmetrizable space has a nonmetrizable subspace of size less than ${\kappa _0}$.

An important conjecture in the theory of Borel sets in non-separable metric spaces is whether any point-countable Borel-additive family in a complete metric space has a $\sigma $-discrete refinement. We confirm the conjecture for point-countable $\Pi _{3}^{0}$-additive families, thus generalizing results of R. W. Hansell and the first author. We apply this result to the existence of Borel measurable selectors for multivalued mappings of low Borel complexity, thus answering in the affirmative a particular version of a question of J. Kaniewski and R. Pol.

We consider the problem of simultaneous extension of continuous convex metrics defined on subcontinua of a Peano continuum. We prove that there is an extension operator for convex metrics that is continuous with respect to the uniform topology.

van Mill et al. posed in ‘Classes defined by stars and neighborhood assignments’, Topology Appl.154 (2007), 2127–2134 the following question: Is a star-compact space metrizable if it has a Gδ-diagonal? In this paper, we give a negative answer to this question.

Given a countable set $S$ of positive reals, we study finite-dimensional Ramsey-theoretic properties of the countable ultrametric Urysohn space ${{\text{Q}}_{S}}$ with distances in $S$.

In this paper, we present some new metrization theorems in terms of Heath g–functions.

Our main result implies that for any choice 1 ≤ m ≤ n ≤ p of integers there exist finitary algebras A1 and A2 that generate the same variety, and such that the initial k-segments of their centralizer clones coincide exactly when k ≤ m, are isomorphic exactly when k ≤ n and are elementarily equivalent exactly when k ≤ p. The proof uses the existence and properties of disciplined topological spaces which we introduce and investigate here.

We show that under reasonable restrictions on the metric spaces X and Y, every surjective isometric isomorphism between Lip(X) and Lip(Y) arises in a simple manner from an isometry between X and Y. Our result differs from several previous results along these lines in that we do not require X and Y to be compact.

We follow P. Fletcher and W. F. Lindgren's work in the study of topological spaces with a unique quasi-uniformity by generalizing some of their results and constructing larger classes of uqu spaces which contain some of their examples as a particular case.

K. Kunugi introduced the notion of ranked space as a generalization of that of metric spaces, (see [6]). In this note we define a metrizability of ranked spaces and study conditions under which a ranked space is metrizable.

In this paper, we construct, for any open cover of a metric space, a partition of unity consisting of a family of uniformly continuous functions.

If X is a topological space then exp X denotes the space of non-empty closed subsets of X with the Vietoris topology and λX denotes the superextension of X Using Martin's axiom together with the negation of the continuum hypothesis the following is proved: If every discrete subset of exp X is countable the X is compact and metrizable. As a corollary, if λX contains no uncountable discrete subsets then X is compact and metrizable. A similar argument establishes the metrizability of any compact space X whose square X × X contains no uncountable discrete subsets.

It is shown that the diagonal of X has a countable neighborhood base in X × X if and only if X is a metrizable space whose set of non-isolated points is compact.