Function spaces and contractive extensions in approach theory: the role of regularity (Q2014746)

It is well-known that a regular convergence space \(Y\) has the following two properties for each convergence space \(X\): (1) Whenever a filter \(\mathcal F\) on \(Y^X\) converges in the continuous convergence structure to a mapping \(f \in Y^X\) then \(f\) is continuous. (2) If \(S\) is a strict subspace of \(X\) and \(f : S \to Y\) a continuous mapping then \(f\) can be continuously extended to a continuous mapping \(F : X \to Y\). The problem of whether (1) or (2) actually characterize the regularity of \(Y\) had only partial answers. The authors study related problems for convergence approach spaces. Introducing the notion of the default of a function -- which somehow measures how far it is away from being a contraction -- they prove various results which in particular show that (1) and (2) are indeed necessary and sufficient for the regularity of a convergence space \(Y\). Reviewer's remark: Corollary 12 is not a consequence of Theorem 11 and is not true if \(X\) is only assumed to be topological.