On the cardinality of almost discretely Lindelöf spaces (Q1647821)

A topological space \(X\) is said to be \textit{discretely Lindelöf}, if the closure of every discrete subset is Lindelöf, and it is said to be \textit{almost discretely Lindelöf} if for every discrete subset \(D \subseteq X\) there is a Lindelöf subspace \(L\) of \(X\) such that \(D \subseteq L\), that is, almost discrete Lindelöfness means that every discrete subset can be covered by a Lindelöf subspace. It was shown by \textit{I. Juhász} et al. [Stud. Sci. Math. Hung. 54, No. 4, 523--535 (2017; Zbl 1413.54082)] that every almost discretely Lindelöf first-countable space has cardinality at most \(2^{\mathfrak c}\). It was also asked, in the paper we have just referred to, whether every almost discretely Lindelöf first-countable \textit{Hausdorff} space has its cardinality bounded by the continuum. In the paper under review, the authors prove that this is the case under \(2^{< \mathfrak c} = \mathfrak c\), which is a set theoretical hypothesis which holds, for instance, under Martin's Axiom. They also provide a \(\mathbf{ZFC}\) proof of the analogous result for \textit{Urysohn spaces} (recall that a topological space is said to be a Urysohn space if any two distinct points are separated by disjoint closed neighbourhoods). It is worthwhile remarking that this \(\mathbf{ZFC}\) result on Urysohn spaces strengthens a recently published result of \textit{I. Juhász} et al. [Topology Appl. 241, 145--149 (2018; Zbl 1396.54006)], where it has been shown that every almost discretely Lindelöf first countable \textit{regular} space has cardinality bounded by the continuum. The paper finishes by exploring further generalizations and related results.