TITLE: Does $\beta \mathbb N$ embed into $\beta \mathbb N \setminus \mathbb N$?
QUESTION [6 upvotes]: Is there a clopen subset of $\beta \mathbb N \setminus \mathbb N$ homeomorphic to $\beta \mathbb N$? If so, is there any plausible description of any such a subspace?

REPLY [4 votes]: There is not: if there were, $\beta\Bbb N\setminus\Bbb N$ would contain isolated points, and it does not. Specifically, if $h:\beta\Bbb N\to\beta\Bbb N\setminus\Bbb N$ were homeomorphism onto a clopen subset $X$ of $\beta\Bbb N\setminus\Bbb N$, the sets $\{h(n)\}$ for $n\in\Bbb N$ would be open in $X$ and therefore in $\beta\Bbb N\setminus\Bbb N$.