Inverse limits on graphs and monotone mappings

Abstract:

In 1935, Knaster gave an example of an irreducible continuum (i.e. compact connected metric space) K which can be mapped onto an arc so that each point-preimage is an arc. The continuum K is chainable (or arc-like). In this paper it is shown that every one-dimensional continuum M is a continuous image, with arcs as point-preimages, of some one-dimensional continuum $M’$. Moreover, if M is G-like, for some collection G of graphs, then $M’$ can be chosen to be G-like. A corollary is that every chainable continuum is a continuous image, with arcs as point-inverses, of a chainable (and hence, by a theorem of Bing, planar) continuum. These investigations give rise to the study of certain special types of inverse limit sequences on graphs.