We prove that the set of all endpoints of the Julia set of $f(z)=\exp\!(z)-1$ which escape to infinity under iteration of f is not homeomorphic to the rational Hilbert space $\mathfrak E$ . As a corollary, we show that the set of all points $z\in \mathbb C$ whose orbits either escape to $\infty$ or attract to 0 is path-connected. We extend these results to many other functions in the exponential family.

Erdős space $\mathfrak {E}$ and complete Erdős space $\mathfrak {E}_{c}$ have been previously shown to have topological characterizations. In this paper, we provide a topological characterization of the topological space $\mathbb {Q}\times \mathfrak {E}_{c}$ , where $\mathbb {Q}$ is the space of rational numbers. As a corollary, we show that the Vietoris hyperspace of finite sets $\mathcal {F}(\mathfrak {E}_{c})$ is homeomorphic to $\mathbb {Q}\times \mathfrak {E}_{c}$ . We also characterize the factors of $\mathbb {Q}\times \mathfrak {E}_{c}$ . An interesting open question that is left open is whether $\sigma \mathfrak {E}_{c}^{\omega }$ , the $\sigma $ -product of countably many copies of $\mathfrak {E}_{c}$ , is homeomorphic to $\mathbb {Q}\times \mathfrak {E}_{c}$ .

We are interested in dendrites for which all invariant measures of zero-entropy mappings have discrete spectrum, and we prove that this holds when the closure of the endpoint set of the dendrites is countable. This solves an open question which has been around for awhile, and almost completes the characterization of dendrites with this property.

Let $\Omega $ be a connected open set in the plane and $\gamma : [0,1] \to \overline {\Omega }$ a path such that $\gamma ((0,1)) \subset \Omega $ . We show that the path $\gamma $ can be “pulled tight” to a unique shortest path which is homotopic to $\gamma $ , via a homotopy h with endpoints fixed whose intermediate paths $h_t$ , for $t \in [0,1)$ , satisfy $h_t((0,1)) \subset \Omega $ . We prove this result even in the case when there is no path of finite Euclidean length homotopic to $\gamma $ under such a homotopy. For this purpose, we offer three other natural, equivalent notions of a “shortest” path. This work generalizes previous results for simply connected domains with simple closed curve boundaries.

We show that any action of a countable amenable group on a uniquely arcwise connected continuum has a periodic point of order $\leq 2$ .

We investigate C-sets in almost zero-dimensional spaces, showing that closed $\sigma $ C-sets are C-sets. As corollaries, we prove that every rim- $\sigma $ -compact almost zero-dimensional space is zero-dimensional and that each cohesive almost zero-dimensional space is nowhere rational. To show that these results are sharp, we construct a rim-discrete connected set with an explosion point. We also show that every cohesive almost zero-dimensional subspace of $($ Cantor set $)\!\times \mathbb R$ is nowhere dense.

Continua $X$ and $Y$ are monotone equivalent if there exist monotone onto maps $f\,:\,X\,\to \,Y$ and $g:\,Y\to \,X.\,\text{A}$ . A continuum $X$ is isolated with respect to monotone maps if every continuumthat is monotone equivalent to $X$ must also be homeomorphic to $X$ . In this paper we show that a dendrite $X$ is isolated with respect to monotone maps if and only if the set of ramification points of $X$ is finite. In this way we fully characterize the classes of dendrites that are monotone isolated.

A continuumis said to be Suslinian if it does not contain uncountably many mutually exclusive non-degenerate subcontinua. Fitzpatrick and Lelek have shown that a metric Suslinian continuum $X$ has the property that the set of points at which $X$ is connected im kleinen is dense in $X$. We extend their result to Hausdorff Suslinian continua and obtain a number of corollaries. In particular, we prove that a homogeneous, non-degenerate, Suslinian continuum is a simple closed curve and that each separable, non-degenerate, homogenous, Suslinian continuum is metrizable.

A continuumis said to be Suslinian if it does not contain uncountably many mutually exclusive nondegenerate subcontinua. We prove that Suslinian continua are perfectly normal and rim-metrizable. Locally connected Suslinian continua have weight atmost ${{\omega }_{1}}$ and under appropriate set-theoretic conditions are metrizable. Non-separable locally connected Suslinian continua are rim-finite on some open set.

We study Hausdorff continua in which every set of certain cardinality contains a subset which disconnects the space. We show that such continua are rim-finite. We give characterizations of this class among metric continua. As an application of our methods, we show that continua in which each countably infinite set disconnects are generalized graphs. This extends a result of Nadler for metric continua.

Peano continua which are images of the unit interval [0,1] or the circle S under a continuous and irreducible map are investigated. Necessary conditions for a space to be the irreducible image of [0,1] are given, and it is conjectured that these conditions are sufficient as well. Also, various results on irreducible images of [0,1] and S are given within some classes of regular curves. Some of them involve inverse limits of inverse sequences of Euler graphs with monotone bonding maps.

Let X be a Hausdorff space which is the continuous image of an ordered continuum. We prove that every irreducible separator of X is metrizable. This is a far reaching extension of the 1967 theorem of S. Mardešić which asserts that X has a basis of open sets with metrizable boundaries. Our first result is then used to show that, in particular, if Y is an hereditarily locally connected continuum, then for subsets of Y quasi-components coincide with components, and that the boundary of each connected open subset of Y is accessible by ordered continua. These results answer open problems in the literature due to the fourth and third authors, respectively.

The notion of expansive homeomorphism is important in topological dynamics and continuum theory. In this paper, a new kind of homeomorphism will be introduced and studied, namely the continuum-wise expansive homeomorphism. The class of continuum-wise expansive homeomorphisms is much larger than the one of expansive homeomorphisms. In fact, the class of continuum-wise expansive homeomorphisms contains many important homeomorphisms which often appear in "chaotic" topological dynamics and continuum theory, but which are not expansive homeomorphisms. For example, the shift maps of Knaster's indecomposable chainable continua are continuum-wise expansive homeomorphisms, but they are not expansive homeomorphisms. Also, there is a continuum-wise expansive homeomorphism on the pseudoarc. We study several properties of continuum-wise expansive homeomorphisms. Many theorems concerning expansive homeomorphisms will be generalized to the case of continuum-wise expansive homeomorphisms.