Maps with Discrete Fibers and the Origin of Basepoints

Let \({p : \mathcal {E}\rightarrow \mathcal S}\) be a hyperconnected geometric morphism. For each X in the ‘gros’ topos \(\mathcal {E}\), there is a hyperconnected geometric morphism \({p_X : \mathcal {E}/X \rightarrow \mathcal S(X)}\) from the slice over X to the ‘petit’ topos of maps (over X) with discrete fibers. We show that if p is essential then \(p_X\) is essential for every X. The proof involves the idea of collapsing a connected subspace to a ‘basepoint’, as in Algebraic Topology, but formulated in topos-theoretic terms. In case p is local, we characterize when \({p_X}\) is local for every X. This is a very restrictive property, typical of toposes of spaces of dimension \({\le 1}\).