When the collection of \(\varepsilon\)-balls is locally finite (Q1862063)

The authors consider the class \({\mathcal N}\) of metrizable spaces which admit a metric \(d\) such that for every \(\varepsilon>0\) the collection \(\{B(x,\varepsilon):x\in X\}\) of all \(\varepsilon\)-balls is locally finite. In particular they answer Nagata's question whether each metrizable space admits such a metric negatively by showing that \({\mathcal N}\) is precisely the class of metrizable spaces having a base which is the union of countably many star-finite open covers [or equivalently, the class of spaces homeomorphic to a subspace of \(\kappa^\omega \times [0,1]^\omega\) for some cardinal \(\kappa\) (where \(\kappa\) carries the discrete topology)].