Compactifiable classes of compacta

Abstract

We introduce the notion of compactifiable classes – these are classes of metrizable compact spaces that can be up to homeomorphic copies “disjointly combined” into one metrizable compact space. This is witnessed by so-called compact composition of the class. Analogously, we consider Polishable classes and Polish compositions. The question of compactifiability or Polishability of a class is related to hyperspaces. Strongly compactifiable and strongly Polishable classes may be characterized by the existence of a corresponding family in the hyperspace of all metrizable compacta. We systematically study the introduced notions – we give several characterizations, consider preservation under various constructions, and raise several questions.