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# Characterizing Complete Erd\H os Space

Published:2009-02-01
Printed: Feb 2009
• Jan J. Dijkstra
• Jan van Mill
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## Abstract

The space now known as {\em complete Erd\H os space\/} $\cerdos$ was introduced by Paul Erd\H os in 1940 as the closed subspace of the Hilbert space $\ell^2$ consisting of all vectors such that every coordinate is in the convergent sequence $\{0\}\cup\{1/n:n\in\N\}$. In a solution to a problem posed by Lex G. Oversteegen we present simple and useful topological characterizations of $\cerdos$. As an application we determine the class of factors of $\cerdos$. In another application we determine precisely which of the spaces that can be constructed in the Banach spaces $\ell^p$ according to the `Erd\H os method' are homeomorphic to $\cerdos$. A novel application states that if $I$ is a Polishable $F_\sigma$-ideal on $\omega$, then $I$ with the Polish topology is homeomorphic to either $\Z$, the Cantor set $2^\omega$, $\Z\times2^\omega$, or $\cerdos$. This last result answers a question that was asked by Stevo Todor{\v{c}}evi{\'c}.
 Keywords: Complete Erd\H os space, Lelek fan, almost zero-dimensional, nowhere zero-dimensional, Polishable ideals, submeasures on $\omega$, $\R$-trees, line-free groups in Banach spaces
 MSC Classifications: 28C10 - Set functions and measures on topological groups or semigroups, Haar measures, invariant measures [See also 22Axx, 43A05] 46B20 - Geometry and structure of normed linear spaces 54F65 - Topological characterizations of particular spaces