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The Nonexistence of a Continuous Surjection from a Continuum onto its Square
Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society (1991)
  • Hidefumi Katsuura, San Jose State University
Abstract
In the late nineteenth century, the Italian mathematician Peano discovered a continuous surjection from [0, 1] onto [0, 1] x [0, 1]. This led to the discovery, in the early twentieth century, of the Hahn-Mazurkiewiez Theorem, which states that a continuum (compact, connected metric space) is continuous image of the unit interval [0, 1] if and only if it is locally connected. (Consequently, honoring Peano's discovery, we call a locally connected continuum a Peano continuum.) Combining this theorem and Urysohn's Lemma, one can prove the existence of a continuous surjection form a Peano continuum X onto X x X. This observation motivated the author to consider a continuous surjection from a continuum X onto X x X, and led to the discovery of a sufficient condition on a continuum for the nonexistence of such functions.
Keywords
  • Continuous surjection,
  • Continuum,
  • Mathematical,
  • Mathematics
Disciplines
Publication Date
1991
Publisher Statement
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Citation Information
Hidefumi Katsuura. "The Nonexistence of a Continuous Surjection from a Continuum onto its Square" Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society Vol. 111 Iss. 4 (1991)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/hidefumi_katsuura/11/