Disconnectedness properties of Hyperspaces

Abstract

Let $X$ be a Hausdorff space and let $\mathcal{H}$ be one of the hyperspaces $CL(X)$, $\mathcal{K}(X)$, $\mathcal{F}(X)$ or ${\mathcal{F}}_n(X)$ ($n$ a positive integer) with the Vietoris topology. We study the following disconnectedness properties for $\mathcal{H}$: extremal disconnectedness, being a $F^{\prime }$-space, $P$-space or weak $P$-space and hereditary disconnectedness. Our main result states: if $X$ is Hausdorff and $F\subset X$ is a closed subset such that $(a)$ both $F$ and $X-F$ are totally disconnected, $(b)$ the quotient $X/F$ is hereditarily disconnected, then $\mathcal{K}(X)$ is hereditarily disconnected. We also show an example proving that this result cannot be reversed.