Maximal realcompact spaces and measurable cardinals (Q1779518)

Recall that a Tychonoff space is called realcompact provided that it can be embedded as a closed subset of a product of real lines. \(RC\) denotes the class of realcompact spaces, and \(M(RC)\) denotes the class of maximal realcompact spaces. If \((X,\tau)\) is a space and \(\kappa\) is a cardinal, then \(\tau_{\kappa}\) denotes the topology on \(X\) generated by the base \(\{\bigcap\mathcal W: \mathcal W\subseteq\tau\) and \(| \mathcal W| <\kappa\}\). \(P(\kappa)\) denotes the class of spaces \((X,\tau)\) such that \(\tau_{\kappa}=\tau\). The first measurable cardinal is denoted by \(\mathfrak m\). Finally, a cardinal \(\kappa >\omega\) is a strongly compact cardinal if, for every set \(S\), every \(\kappa\)-complete filter over \(S\) can be extended to a \(\kappa\)-complete ultrafilter over \(S\) (where a filter \(\mathcal F\) is called \(\kappa\)-complete provided that every intersection of fewer than \(\kappa\) members of \(\mathcal F\) is again a member of \(\mathcal F\)). The author notes that by results of [\textit{W.W.\ Comfort} and \textit{T.\ Retta}, Rings of Continuous Functions, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1982, Lect. Notes Pure Appl. Math. 95, 79--102 (1985; Zbl 0564.54012)], \(M(RC)\subseteq RC\cap P(\mathfrak m)\). He also refers the reader to [\textit{A. W. Hager} and \textit{R. J. MacKenzie}, Topology Appl. 148, 173--181 (2005; Zbl 1093.54002)] for related results. The author addresses the question raised in [\textit{W.W.\ Comfort} and \textit{A.W.\ Hager}, ``Maximal realcompact (and other) topologies'', Topol. Proc.\ 28, 425--443 (2004)]: ``Is \(M(RC)\supseteq P(\mathfrak m)\cap RC\) valid?'' He proves that this question is undecidable by proving the following two results. If \(\mathfrak m\) is not a strongly compact cardinal (the most likely case), then there is an \(X\in P(\mathfrak m)\cap RC\) which is not in \(M(RC)\). If \(\mathfrak m\) is a strongly compact cardinal, then \(M(RC)\) is equal to \(P(\mathfrak m)\cap RC\).