Supercompact minus compact is super

Abstract

According to a folklore characterization of supercompact spaces, a compact Hausdorff space is supercompact if and only if it has a binary closed $k$-network. This characterization suggests to call a topological space $super$ if it has a binary closed $k$-network $\mathcal N$. The binarity of $\mathcal N$ means that every linked subfamily of $\mathcal N$ is centered. Therefore, a Hausdorff space is supercompact if and only if it is super and compact. In this paper we prove that the class of super spaces contains all GO-spaces, all supercompact spaces, all metrizable spaces, and all collectionwise normal $\aleph$-spaces. Moreover, the class of super spaces is closed under taking Tychonoff products and discretely dense sets in Tychonoff products. The superness of metrizable spaces implies that each compact metrizable space is supercompact, which was first proved by Strok and Szyma\'nski (1975) and then reproved by Mills (1979), van Douwen (1981), and D{\c e}bski (1984).