Mal'tsev spaces, retral spaces and rectifiable diagonals (Q1356952)

This is a wide-ranging compendium and a catalogue of implications connecting the spaces of the title and certain other classes of spaces. Among the results which are proved, reproved, improved or announced here for the first time without proof are these: Every first countable \(r\Delta\)-space is metrizable; every monotonically normal c.c.c. \(r\Delta\)-space is stratifiable; a pseudocompact space is Mal'tsev (hence, has c.c.c.) if and only if it is a retract of some topological group (i.e., is retral); if \({\mathcal T}\) and \({\mathcal M}\) are topologies on a set \(X\) with \({\mathcal M}\subseteq{\mathcal T}\), \({\mathcal M}\) zero-dimensional separable metric and \({\mathcal T}\) possessing an open sub-base of \({\mathcal M}\)-closed sets, then \((X,{\mathcal T})\) is retral; there is a Lindelöf group with cellularity \({\mathfrak c}\); there is a retral, non-Mal'tsev space; and, \(X\) is Ma'tsev if and only if \(X\) is a retract of \(\{xy^{-1}z\in F(X): x,z,y\in X\}\). The authors indicate carefully which of these results are due fully or in part of A. Gul'ko, V. V. Uspen'skij, E. A. Reznichenko, O. Sipacheva, et al., and which are due to the authors themselves (together or individually).