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Recall that an extremally disconnected space is a Hausdorff topological space in which the closure of any open set is still open.

On the surface, this doesn't seem like a very remarkable condition compared to “totally disconnected”, “zero-dimensional” and other disconnectedness conditions.

But for some reason, it seems difficult to give non-discrete examples of extremally disconnected spaces, and those that are found are essentially impossible to visualize. The standard examples are the Stone-Čech compactification of discrete spaces, which are, of course, very difficult to visualize. More generally, the Stone spaces of complete Boolean algebras are extremally disconnected; now I see no reason a priori why the Stone space of a complete Boolean algebra should necessarily be more difficult to visualize than other Stone spaces (e.g., the Cantor space isn't hard to visualize), yet it appears to be the case (see this question relating the Stone space of the Boolean algebra of regular opens in another space to a projective limit of Stone-Čech compactifications).

Every example of extremally disconnected space in Steen & Seebach's celebrated Counterexamples in Topology involves some kind of ultrafilter construction. (And, tellingly, none of them has a picture attached.)

Now I'm aware that an extremally disconnected metric space is discrete, which partially explains why examples would be hard to depict. But still, many standard examples in topology aren't metric spaces and still aren't too difficult to imagine.

So, question: is there some explainable reason why extremally disconnected spaces are hard to produce or, at least, hard to visualize? (Of course, I'd be even happier to be proved wrong by being given a simple example that does not involve anything like an ultrafilter.)

One possible reason might be if the statement “all extremally disconnected spaces are discrete” is consistent with ZF. If so, this would constitute a valid answer to my question. But I emphasize that I am not necessarily asking for such a thing: there could be other reasons like “any non-discrete extremally disconnected space contains a copy of $\beta\mathbb{N}$” (I don't think this is true, but maybe some statement of the sort is true).

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    $\begingroup$ With a Non commutative point of view whose world consits of point less space they are not rare: every commutative von neumann algebra is an example of an extremely disconnected space: Consider its spectrum $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 14 at 23:23
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    $\begingroup$ If you take the underlying set of a $\kappa^+$-saturated model and consider the topology whose opens are the subsets definable by $\kappa$-ary positive existential formulas then the resulting space is extremally disconnected. Is that the kind of concrete example you were looking for? $\endgroup$
    – godelian
    Commented Aug 14 at 23:46
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    $\begingroup$ One very reasonable argument for them being 'hard to visualise' is that those spaces cannot have countable base of topology; and everything 'visualise-able' ought to be ind-finite over a countable diagram (as far as my knowledge of 'visualising' goes, according to me and a few people who I talked to about this). $\endgroup$
    – Denis T
    Commented Aug 15 at 1:10
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    $\begingroup$ Every extremally disconnected Hausdorff space $X$ is a subspace (retract if $X$ is compact) of $\beta Y$ for some discrete $Y$, so they all seem to be ultrafilter-ish, even though the above doesn't exclude the possibility of an extremally disconnected space defined with no explicit mentions of ultrafilters $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 15 at 8:10
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    $\begingroup$ @DenisT What does "ind-finite" mean? $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 15 at 16:47

2 Answers 2

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We can always get non-principal ultrafilters on sets from non-discrete extremally disconnected spaces.

Let $X$ be a topological space. Let $\text{Clo}(X)$ denote the Boolean algebra of clopen subsets of $X$. If $X$ is extremally disconnected and zero dimensional, then $\text{Clo}(X)$ is a complete Boolean algebra, and for each non-isolated point $x_0\in X$, the set $\{R\in\text{Clo}(X):x_0\in R\}$ is a non-principal ultrafilter.

If $B$ is a complete Boolean algebra, and $U$ is an ultrafilter on $B$, then for each partition $p$ of $B$, we can define an ultrafilter $U_p=\{R\subseteq p:\bigvee R\in U\}$ on the set $p$.

Proposition: Suppose that $\kappa$ is a regular cardinal. Let $B$ be a $<\kappa$-complete Boolean algebra. Then an ultrafilter $U$ on $B$ is $<\kappa$-complete if and only if whenever $p$ is a partition of $B$ with $|p|<\kappa$, the ultrafilter $U_p$ is principal.

As a consequence, if $B$ is a complete Boolean algebra, and $U$ is a non-principal ultrafilter on $B$, then there is some partition $p$ where $U_p$ is a non-principal ultrafilter on $p$.

The above proposition is good for theory building, we can use a result with a simpler proof. We say that a subset $c$ of a lattice with zero $L$ is a cellular family if $a\wedge b=0$ whenever $a,b$ are distinct elements of $c$. If $A,B$ are subsets of a poset $P$, then write $A\preceq B$ and say that $A$ refines $B$ if for all $a\in A$ there exists a $b\in B$ with $a\leq b$.

In point-free topology, we have extremally disconnected frames, but in point-free topology, one does not need to worry about ultrafilters at all.

Added 2024-Sept-5

Ultraparacompactness lemma: If $B$ is a Boolean algebra and $R\subseteq B$ is a subset that has a least upper bound, then there exists a cellular family $C$ with $C\preceq R$ and $\bigvee C=\bigvee R$.

Proof: Order the collection of all cellular families $C$ with $C\preceq R$ by inclusion. Then by Zorn's lemma, there exists a maximal cellular family $C$ with respect to this ordering. Since $C\preceq R$, $\bigvee R$ is an upper bound of $C$. If $\bigvee R$ is not the least upper bound, then there is some upper bound $b$ of $C$ with $b<\bigvee R$. Let $a=(\bigvee R)\wedge b'$. Then $a=\bigvee_{r\in R}(r\wedge b')$, so there is some $r\in R$ with $0<r\wedge b'$, but $C\cup\{r\wedge b'\}$ is a cellular family with $C\cup\{r\wedge b'\}\preceq R$ which contradicts the maximality of $C$. Therefore, $\bigvee C=\bigvee R$. Q.E.D.

As a consequence of the ultraparacompactness, if $U$ is a non-principal ultrafilter on a complete Boolean algebra $B$, then there is some cellular family $p\subseteq B\setminus\{0\}$ with $p\subseteq B\setminus U$, but in this case $U_p$ is a non-principal ultrafilter on $p$.


Remarks (added by Gro-Tsen, 2024-08-20):

The above answer is correct, but I thought a few additional explanations would help illuminate it (any mistakes in what follows are entirely mine = Gro-Tsen's, of course).

  • The hypothesis that $X$ is zero-dimensional (on top of being extremally disconnected) is not a strong one: every regular extremally disconnected space is zero-dimensional, and some authors take this as part of the definition (e.g., in Hart, Nagata & Vaughan, Encyclopedia of General Topology, chapter g-01). Some kind of separation hypothesis is required: if an infinite set is endowed with the cofinite topology, it satisfies the property that the closure of an open set is still open, but it is not zero-dimensional and the construction outlined in the above answer fails. However, the latter space is not Hausdorff, something I had assumed in the question. There are Hausdorff (but not regular) extremally disconnected spaces which fail to be zero-dimensional (such as the “strong ultrafilter topology”, #113 in Steen & Seebach, Counterexamples in Topology), but this doesn't matter, because the proof works if we replace “zero-dimensional” by “totally separated”, where “totally separated” means the intersection of all clopen sets containing any $x_0 \in X$ is $\{x_0\}$, and this follows from extremally disconnected (Steen & Seebach, op. cit., fig. 9).

  • The infinite meet operation on $\operatorname{Clo}(X)$ is $\bigvee_{i \in I} R_i = \operatorname{closure}(\bigcup_{i\in I} R_i)$ as is easily checked (the “extremally disconnected” hypothesis ensures that this closure is open). So $p$ being a partition of $\operatorname{Clo}(X)$ means it's a set of clopen subsets of $X$ whose union is dense in $X$; and if $U$ is the ultrafilter $\{R\in\operatorname{Clo}(X):x_0\in R\}$ on $\operatorname{Clo}(X)$. the ultrafilter $U_p$ will consist of subsets of $p$ such that $x_0$ is in the closure of the union. (I'm spelling this out because I had initially read this as $x_0$ just being in the union and couldn't figure out how this could fail to be principal.)

  • To say that a ultrafilter $U$ on a complete (resp. ${<}\kappa$-complete) Boolean algebra $B$ is complete (resp. ${<}\kappa$-complete) means that for any $I$ (resp. one with $|I| < \kappa$), if $R_i \in U$ for all $i\in I$ then $\bigwedge_{i\in I} R_i \in U$ (or, of course, dually: if $\bigvee_{i\in I} R_i \in U$ then $R_i \in U$ for some $i\in I$). The crucial fact used in the proof is now that $\operatorname{Clo}(X)$ is complete (as pointed out in the previous bullet), but $\{R\in\operatorname{Clo}(X):x_0\in R\}$ is not complete unless $x_0$ is isolated (because, the space being zero-dimensional, the intersection of all clopen neighborhoods of $x_0$ is $\{x_0\}$ as $X$ is totally separated; and unless $x_0$ is isolated this means that their meet in $\operatorname{Clo}(X)$ is $\varnothing$).

  • Here is a proof of the stated proposition. One direction is trivial: assume $B$ is a ${<}\kappa$-complete Boolean algebra and $U$ is a ${<}\kappa$-complete ultrafilter on $B$; if $p$ is a partition with $|p|<\kappa$ then $\bigvee_{R\in p} R = \top$ so by ${<}\kappa$-completeness of $U$ there is $R\in p$ such that $R\in U$ which means $U_p$ is principal. Now for the other direction:

Assume $B$ is a ${<}\kappa$-complete Boolean algebra and $U$ is an ultrafilter on $B$ which is not $\lambda$-complete for some $\lambda<\kappa$. Using the well-ordering principle, this means there are $R_\xi$ for $\xi<\lambda$ (identifying $\lambda$ with the smallest ordinal of that cardinal) such that $R_\xi \in U$ but $\bigwedge_{\xi<\lambda} R_\xi \not\in U$.

Now define the elements $P_\xi := (\neg R_\xi) \wedge \bigwedge_{\iota<\xi} R_\iota$ for $\xi<\lambda$, where $\neg R_\xi$ denotes the Boolean complement of $R_\xi$ (starting with $P_0 = \neg R_0$), and also $P_\lambda := \bigwedge_{\xi<\lambda} R_\xi$. Clearly, $P_\iota\wedge P_\xi = \bot$ if $\iota<\xi\leq\lambda$ (because $P_\iota\leq\neg R_\iota$ and $P_\xi\leq R_\iota$).

By transfinite induction on $\xi\leq\lambda$ we show that $$ \Big(\bigvee_{\iota<\xi} P_\iota\Big) \vee \Big(\bigwedge_{\iota<\xi} R_\iota\Big) = \top $$ For $\xi=0$ this is trivial. At successor $\xi$ this follows from the induction hypothesis by writing $$ \bigwedge_{\iota<\xi} R_\iota = ((\neg R_\xi) \vee R_\xi) \wedge \big(\bigwedge_{\iota<\xi} R_\iota\big) = P_\xi\, \vee \, \big(\bigwedge_{\iota<\xi+1} R_\iota\big) $$ And at limit $\xi$ it follows by using the distributivity of finite $\vee$ on infinite $\bigwedge$ (see e.g., here) to write $$ \Big(\bigvee_{\iota<\xi} P_\iota\Big) \vee \Big(\bigwedge_{\iota<\xi} R_\iota\Big) = \bigwedge_{\iota<\xi} \Bigg(\big(\bigvee_{\iota<\xi} P_\iota\big) \vee R_\iota\Bigg) $$ and each $\big(\bigvee_{\iota<\xi} P_\iota\big) \vee R_\iota$ is $\geq \big(\bigvee_{\gamma\leq\iota} P_\gamma\big) \vee \big(\bigwedge_{\gamma\leq\iota}R_\gamma\big)$ which is $\top$ by the induction hypothesis. This concludes the induction, and in particular we have $\big(\bigvee_{\xi<\lambda} P_\xi\big) \vee P_\lambda = \top$, in other words the $P_\xi$ for $\xi\leq\lambda$ form a partition of $B$.

But none of the $P_\xi$ is in $U$: for $\xi<\lambda$ this is because $\neg R_\xi \not\in U$; and for $P_\lambda$ this is because $\bigwedge_{\xi<\lambda} R_\xi \not\in U$. So the ultrafilter $U_p$ on $p = \{ P_\xi : \xi\leq\lambda \}$ is not principal. This concludes the proof of the proposition. ∎

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    $\begingroup$ This shows that the statement “all extremally disconnected spaces are discrete” is consistent with ZF, right? Since "every ultrafilter is principal" is consistent with ZF, I think. $\endgroup$
    – Will Sawin
    Commented Aug 15 at 16:13
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    $\begingroup$ @WillSawin Does the proof itself use AC though? I don’t know how the Proposition is proved, but it seems to me like it should depend on AC. Otherwise, I don’t see how these partitions can be constructed. $\endgroup$
    – David Gao
    Commented Aug 15 at 17:21
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    $\begingroup$ For the proposition, we need to refine covers by partitions (a frame where every cover is refined by a partition is known as an ultraparacompact frame). The way I know how to do this in a complete Boolean algebra requires us to well order the cover and then take set differences to get a partition. $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 15 at 17:26
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    $\begingroup$ @JosephVanName I suppose AC is needed and this doesn’t really show independence from ZF then. But it does look quite promising. $\endgroup$
    – David Gao
    Commented Aug 15 at 18:16
  • $\begingroup$ @JosephVanName I added at the end of your answer a number of remarks clarifying a few minor points and a proof of the proposition you stated: could you review this before I approve your answer? $\endgroup$
    – Gro-Tsen
    Commented Aug 20 at 19:41
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There is a famous question of Arhangel'skii:

Is there a non-discrete extremally disconnected topological group?

The general problem is still open, but the separable case was solved a few years ago by Reznichenko and Sipacheva (see Discrete subsets in topological groups and countable extremally disconnected groups, PAMS 149 (2021)). It turns out that the existence of a non-discrete separable extremelly disconnected space is independent of ZFC. And yes, it has a lot to do with the existence (or not) of (certain kind of) ultrafilters.

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