Paracompact in \(\mathsf{ZFC}\); CWN screenable Dowker in \(\mathsf{ZF}+\mathsf{AD}\) (Q2131804)

In the theory of covering properties the Axiom of Choice, especially in the guise of the Well-ordering Theorem, is used extensively in analyzing and creating subcovers and refinements with desirable properties. The present paper addresses an old question whether there exists a collectionwise normal and screenable Dowker space. The author presents a remarkable example whose underlying set is the product \(\mathbb{P}\times\omega\), where \(\mathbb{P}=\omega^\omega\), the familiar Baire space. Using a fixed homeomorphism \(\phi:\mathbb{P}^2\to\mathbb{P}\) the set is topologized via weak local bases: \(U\) is open iff for every point \((x,n+1)\in U\) there is a finite set \(F\) such that \(\bigl\{(\phi(x,y),n): y\in\mathbb{P}\setminus F\bigr\}\subseteq U\). An insightful analysis of these weak local bases shows, without using the Axiom of Choice, that the resulting space is screenable and monotonically normal. An application of the Axiom of Choice yields a set of representatives for an equivalence relation related to the map \(\phi\) and this is then used to prove that the space is, even, ultraparacompact: every open cover has a pairwise disjoint open refinement. Thus, the space is not a counterexample to the question mentioned above, and this establishes the first half of the title. By contrast if one assumes all subsets of \(\mathbb{P}\) have the property of Baire then some intricate combinatorics shows that the space is \emph{not} countably paracompact. Hence the second part of the title: the Axiom of Determinacy implies that the very same space \emph{is} a counterexample to the question.