Paracompactness of lexicographic products of GO-spaces (Q1744598)

Lexicographic products of paracompact GO-spaces are known to be paracompact. On the other hand, a lexicographic product of non-paracompact LOTS's can be paracompact. This leads to the question of when lexicographic products of GO-spaces are paracompact. In the present (fairly complex and often technical) investigation, paracompactness of lexicographic products of two GO-spaces is characterized, correcting also a result in the mathematical literature. Furthermore a characterization of paracompactness of lexicographic products of any length of ordinal subspaces is presented. The main results are illustrated by numerous useful examples, which show the delicate and complicated nature of the studied problems.