Preservation of uniform continuity under pointwise product (Q1710645)

Let \((X,\mathcal{U})\) be a uniform space and \(U(X)\) be the linear space of real-valued uniformly continuous functions on \(X\). In the paper under review the authors study the problem of characterization of those spaces \(X\) for which the linear space \(U(X)\) is a ring, i.e. it is closed under pointwise products. Such a problem for metric spaces \(X\) was stated by \textit{S. B. Nadler jun.} [Sarajevo J. Math. 1(13), No. 1, 117--127 (2005; Zbl 1068.54017)]. \textit{J. Cabello Sánchez} [``\(U(X)\) as a ring for metric spaces \(X\)'', Filomat 31, 1981--1984 (2017)] proved recently for metric spaces \(X\) that \(U(X)\) is a ring iff each set \(B\subset X\) which is not Bourbaki bounded in \(X\) contains an infinite uniformly isolated subset. Here, a set \(A\subset X\) is said to be \textit{Bourbaki bounded} in the uniform space \((X,\mathcal{U})\) if each \(f\in U(X)\) is bounded on \(A\), and \(A\) is \textit{uniformly isolated} in \((X,\mathcal{U})\) if there is \(U\in\mathcal{U}\) such that \(U[x]=\{ x\}\) for each \(x\in A\). In the paper under review the authors extend Cabello Sanchez's criterion to a wide class of uniform spaces which includes products of metric spaces. The paper contains many other interesting results in this direction. Some of them are listed below. Let \((X,d)\) be a metric space. {\parindent=6mm \begin{itemize}\item[(1)] \(U(X)\) is a ring iff for any \(f\in U(X)\) and \(g\in C(\mathbb{R})\), \(g\circ f\in U(X)\). \item[(2)] \(U(X)\) is a ring iff there is a Bourbaki bounded set \(F\subset X\) such that for every \(\varepsilon>0\) there is \(n\in\mathbb{N}\) such that \(X\setminus B^n(F,\varepsilon)\) is uniformly isolated. \item[(3)] The following conditions are equivalent: {\parindent=12mm \begin{itemize}\item[{\(\bullet\)}] \(U(X)\) is a ring and every Bourbaki bounded set in \(X\) is precompact; \item[{\(\bullet\)}] there is a precompact set \(K\subset X\) such that for each \(\varepsilon>0\), \(X\setminus B(K,\varepsilon)\) is uniformly isolated; \item[{\(\bullet\)}] the completion of \(X\) is a \(UC\)-space, i.e. the derivative \(X'\) is compact and for each \(\varepsilon>0\), the set \(X\setminus B(X',\varepsilon)\) is uniformly isolated. \end{itemize}} \item[(4)] Let \(X\) be a metric space with a finitely chainable closed subspace \(L\) such that \(X'\subset L\). Then there is a metric \(\varrho\) on \(X\) such that \(\varrho\) is compatible with \(d\), and \(U(X,\varrho)\) is a ring. \end{itemize}}