The regular spaces with countably based models. (Q1427785)

The author first gives an elementary introduction to the basic ideas of domain theory à la Dana Scott; the basic notion being that of a dcpo, a partially ordered set in which every directed subset has a supremum. A dcpo \(D\) is continuous (or, a domain) if it has a basis; i.e., a subset \(B\) such that for any \(x\) in \(D\), the set of elements of \(B\) ``way below'' \(x\) contains a directed set whose supremum is \(x\). \(D\) is called \(\omega\)-continuous if \(D\) has a countable basis. The order-theoretic structure of a domain allows for several naturally-defined topologies; the one of interest here is the well-known Scott topology. For any topological space \(X\), a model for \(X\) is a domain \(D\), together with a homeomorphism of \(X\) onto the subspace (in the sense of the Scott topology) of all the maximal elements of \(D\). The model is countably-based if \(D\) is \(\omega\)-continuous. The main result of the paper is that the regular topological spaces with countably-based models are precisely the Polish spaces; i.e., the complete separable metric spaces. Quoting from the abstract: ``In addition, we give a new and conceptually simple model for complete metric spaces. These results enable us to prove that the probabilistic powerdomain of a countably based model of a metric space always contains a copy of the normalized Borel measures in their weak topology, and to establish the hierarchy for countably based models''.