A characterization of partial metrizability: Domains are quantifiable. (Q1427788)

Following \textit{S. G. Matthews} [Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 728, 183--197 (1994; Zbl 0911.54025)] a quasi-metric space \((X, d)\) is called weightable if there exists a mapping \(w: X\to [0,\infty)\) such that \(d(x, y) +w(x)= d(y, x)+w(y)\) for each pair \(x,y\in X\). It is known that every weightable quasi-metric space is quasi-developable. However, it is an open problem to characterize those quasi-uniform spaces \((X, {\mathcal U})\) for which there exists a weightable quasi-metric \(d\) an \(X\) such that \((X,{\mathcal U})= (X,{\mathcal U}_d)\). Therefore the following theorem is interesting. Theorem 1. Let \((X, {\mathcal U})\) be a quasi-uniform join semilattice, i.e., a quasi-uniform space such that (i) (\(X,\leq_{\mathcal U})\) is a partially ordered set such that for each pair \(x,y\in X\) there exists a supremum \(x\vee y\), where \(\leq_{\mathcal U}= \bigcap\{U\mid U\in{\mathcal U}\}\), and (ii) the mapping \((x, y)\mapsto x\vee y\) is quasi-uniformly continuous. Then there exists a weightable invariant quasi-metric \(d\) an \(X\) such that \((X, {\mathcal U})= (X, {\mathcal U}_d)\) if and only if there exists a \(Q\)-join co-valuation on \((X,{\mathcal U})\). It is shown that this theorem is strong enough to solve a major problem from domain theory. Theorem 2. Every domain (i.e., every directed complete partially ordered set \((P, \sqsubseteq)\) with a countable basis) is quantifiable (i.e., there exists a weightable quasi-metric \(d\) an \(P\) such that the topology induced by \(d\) coincides with the Scott-topology of \(P\) and the associated preorder \(\leq_d\) coincides with \(\sqsubseteq\)).