The Čech-Stone remainder of some nowhere locally compact spaces (Q1206526)

A (completely regular and Hausdorff) space \(X\) is said to be extremally disconnected at \(p\in X\) if for every two disjoint open subsets \(U\) and \(V\) of \(X\), \(p\not\in\overline{U}\cap \overline{V}\). This paper considers, for the class of nowhere locally compact realcompact spaces \(X\), when \(X^*=\beta X-X\) is extremally disconnected or has related properties. A space \(X\) is in \(Oz\) if for every open subspace \(Y\) and for each zero-set \(Z\) of \(Y\) there is a zero-set \(Z'\) of \(X\) for which \(Z=Z'\cap Y\). A space \(X\) is in \(Oz'\) if every regularly closed set in \(X\) is a \(G_ \delta\)-subset of \(X\). Finally, a space is an \(F\)-space if every cozero-set is \(C^*\)-embedded and is an \(F'\)-space if disjoint cozero-sets have disjoint closures. Theorem. Let \(X\) be a space, and put \(A=\{x\in X\): \(X\) is not extremally disconnected at \(x\}\). If \(X\) is realcompact and nowhere locally compact, then the following are equivalent: (a) \(A\) has compact closure in \(X\); (b) \(X^*\) is extremally disconnected; (c) \(X^*\) is in \(Oz\); (d) \(X^*\) is in \(Oz'\). If, in addition, \(X\) is in \(Oz\) (in particular, if \(X\) is perfectly normal), then the following are equivalent to (a) as well: (e) \(X^*\) is an \(F\)-space; (f) \(X^*\) is an \(F'\)-space. Corollary. \(\mathbb{Q}^*\) is not an \(F'\)-space, and is not in \(Oz\). Examples are given which indicate the depth of the problem and the above results. The author also notes that Fedorchuk constructed, for each \(n\geq 1\), an example of a compact \(n\)-dimensional space \(K_ n\) which has no regular closed \(G_ \delta\) sets except \(\emptyset\) and \(K_ n\). Here examples with the same properties are constructed by using Theorem 1.5: If \(X\) is nowhere locally compact and realcompact, then every regular closed \(G_ \delta\) of \(X^*\) is open in \(X^*\).