On closed discrete subsets of normal dense subspaces of products (Q2352117): Difference between revisions

In the paper under review, the author investigates possible sizes of closed discrete subsets of normal dense subspaces of products of separable metric spaces. In a previous paper [Topology Appl. 154, No. 2, 374--383 (2007; Zbl 1111.54022)], the author has constructed a perfectly normal dense subspace \(Z\) of \(M^{2^{\mathfrak{c}}}\) containing a closed discrete subset \(Z_1\) of cardinality \(\mathfrak{c}\), where \(M\) is an arbitrary separable metric space consisting of more than one point. So, it is natural to raise the question: Can a normal dense subspace of a product of separable metric spaces contain a closed discrete subset whose cardinality is greater than \(\mathfrak{c}\)? This question is answered in the positive. The proof is quite ingenious: the author shows that for every cardinal \(\theta\) one can consider a set \(A\) of size \(|A| = 2^\theta\) and an arbitrary family \(\{M_x: x \in A\}\) of separable metric spaces, each one of them with more than one point, and then construct a perfectly normal dense subspace \(Z\) of the product \(\prod_{x \in A} M_x\). The described construction gives the desired, after appealing to the well-known Hajnal-Juhász inequality (from the theory of cardinal functions) together with some elementary cardinal arithmetic. It is also shown in the paper that if \(Y\) is a normal dense \textit{convex} subset of a product of real lines, then \(Y\) cannot include a closed discrete subset of size \(\mathfrak{c}^+\).