Embeddings in \(C_p\)-spaces (Q1295306)

Let \(X,Y\) be Tikhonov spaces and \(C_p(X)\) the space of all continuous real valued functions on \(X\) with the topology of pointwise convergence. The general question posed by the author is: given a class \({\mathcal P}\) of topological spaces and a space \(Y\), when can \(Y\) be topologically embedded in \(C_p(X)\) for some \(X\) in \({\mathcal P}\)? The author gives a survey of recent results on the subject by asking many natural questions, of which the answers to some are already known, but the paper is also a storehouse of open questions. Spaces \(X\) and \(Y\) are called \(t\)-(\(l\)-)equivalent in case \(C_p(X)\) and \(C_p(Y)\) are (linearly) homeomorphic. Topological properties preserved under \(t\)-(\(l\)-)equivalence are called \(t\)-(\(l\)-)invariant. Compactness is \(l\)- but not \(t\)-invariant, while \(\sigma\)-compactness is \(t\)-invariant. The author includes his necessary and sufficient condition, announced earlier, for a compact space to be metrizable. He gives a new proof of a theorem of Grothendieck, with the tools of the present paper, that if \(X\) is compact and \(A\subset C_p(X)\) is countably compact in \(C_p(X)\), then the closure of \(A\) in \(C_p(X)\) is compact. He then develops various notions and extensions of this result related to earlier themes of the paper and poses a number of open questions.