Realcompact and Lindelöf extensions with compact remainder (Q2196441)

The system ZFC is the set-theoretic framework for this article. The authors use the terminology and some results from [\textit{L. Gillman} and \textit{M. Jerison}, Rings of continuous functions. Reprint of the 1960 Van Nostrand edition. New York, NY: Springer (1976; Zbl 0327.46040)] and [\textit{F. Azarpanah} et al., Topology Appl. 245, 46--61 (2018; Zbl 1451.54004)]. All spaces are assumed to be completely regular and Hausdorff. If a space \(X\) is a dense subspace of a space \(Y\), then \(Y\) is called an extension of \(X\), and \(Y\setminus X\) is called the remainder of \(Y\). An extension \(Y\) of \(X\) is called a realcompactification (respectively, a Lindelöfication) of \(X\) if \(Y\) is realcompact (respectively, Lindelöf). The ring of all continuous real functions on \(X\) is denoted by \(C(X)\). For \(f\in C(X)\), the set \(Z(f)=f^{-1}(0)\) is the zero-set of \(f\). If \(I\) is an ideal of \(C(X)\), then \(Z[I]=\{Z(f): f\in I\}\). The following \(z\)-ideals of the ring \(C(X)\) are of special importance in the article: \(C_{\mathbb{R}}(X)=\{f\in C(X): X\setminus Z(f) \text{ is realcompact}\}\) and \(C_{L}(X)=\{f\in C(X): X\setminus Z(f) \text{ is Lindelöf}\}.\) For an element \(\infty\notin\mathbb{R}\), \(\mathbb{R}^{\ast}=\mathbb{R}\cup\{\infty\}\) is the one-point Hausdorff compactification of \(\mathbb{R}\). If \(f\in C(X)\), then \(f^{\ast}:\beta X\to\mathbb{R}^{\ast}\) is the unique continuous extension of \(f\) over the Čech-Stone compactification \(\beta X\) of \(X\), and \(v_f X=\{p\in\beta X: f^{\ast}(p)\neq\infty\}\). If \(I\) is an ideal of \(C(X)\), then \(v_{I}X=\bigcap_{f\in I}v_f X\). In particular, \(v X= v_{C(X)} X\), \(\Lambda X= v_{C_L(X)}X\) and \(\Upsilon X=v_{C_{\mathbb{R}}(X)}X\). A maximal ideal \(M\) of \(C(X)\) is called an almost real maximal ideal if either \(\bigcap_{f\in M}Z(f)\neq\emptyset\) or the set \(Z[M]\) contains a free \(z\)-filter which is closed under countable intersections. Then \(\lambda X\) is the set of all points \(p\in\beta X\) such that \(M^{p}=\{f\in C(X): p\in\text{cl}_{\beta X}Z(f)\}\) is an almost real maximal ideal of \(C(X)\). For an extension \(Y\) of \(X\) and the identity map \(i: X\to X\), the map \(\overline{i}:\beta X\to\beta Y\) is the Stone extension of \(i\). For an extension \(Y\) of a space \(X\) and a set \(I\subseteq C(X)\), it is said that \(X\) is \(I\)-embedded in \(Y\) if every function \(f\in I\) can be extended to a function from \(C(Y)\). The main results of the article can be summarized as follows. For every extension \(Y\) of a space \(X\), it is proved that the following conditions are all equivalent: (1) \(Y\) is realcompact (respectively, Lindelöf) and \(Y\setminus X\) is compact; (2) there exists a free ideal \(I\) of \(C(X)\) such that \(I\subseteq C_{\mathbb{R}}(X)\) (respectively, \(I\subseteq C_{L}(X)\)) and \(Y=\overline{i}(v_I X)\); (3) there exists a free ideal \(I\) of \(C(X)\) such that \(I\subseteq C_{\mathbb{R}}(X)\) (respectively, \(I\subseteq C_{L}(X)\)), \(X\) is \(I\)-embedded in \(Y\) and \(Y=v_J Y\) where \(J=\{f\in C(Y): f|_X\in I\}\). It is also shown that, if \(Y\) is an extension of \(X\) such that \(Y\setminus X\) is compact, then: (a) \(Y\) is realcompact if and only if \(\overline{i}(\Upsilon X)\subseteq Y\); (b) \(Y\) is Lindelöf if and only if \(\overline{i}(\Lambda X)\subseteq Y\). A space \(X\) is called locally realcompact (respectively, locally Lindelöf) if, for every \(x\in X\), there exists \(f\in C(X)\) such that \(x\in X\setminus Z(f)\) and \(X\setminus Z(f)\) is realcompact (respectively, Lindelöf). For every space \(X\), it is proved that: (c) \(X\) has a realcompactification (respectively, a Lindelöfication) \(Y\) such that \(Y\setminus X\) is compact if and only if \(X\) is locally realcompact (respectively, locally Lindelöf); (d) if \(X\) is locally realcompact (respectively, locally Lindelöf) and \(X\subseteq Y\subseteq\beta X\) with \(Y\setminus X\) compact, then \(Y\) is realcompact (respectively, Lindelöf) if and only if \(v X\setminus X\subseteq Y\setminus X\) (respectively, \(\lambda X\setminus X\subseteq Y\setminus X\)). For a locally realcompact but not realcompact space \(X\) and a point \(p\notin X\), the authors give a nice description of the strongest topology in \(X\cup\{p\}\) among the topologies \(\tau\) in \(X\cup\{p\}\) such that \(X\cup\{p\}\) equipped with \(\tau\) is a realcompactification of \(X\). Finally, the authors consider an arbitrary topological property \(\mathcal{P}\) such that, for every space \(X\), the following conditions are satisfied: (i) if \(X\) has \(\mathcal{P}\), then every closed subspace of \(X\) has \(\mathcal{P}\); (ii) if \(X\) is a finite union of closed subspaces each having \(\mathcal{P}\), then \(X\) has \(\mathcal{P}\); (iii) if \(X\) is a space which has a point \(p\) with a neighborhood base \(\mathcal{B}\) such that, for every \(B\in\mathcal{B}\), \(X\setminus B\) has \(\mathcal{P}\), then \(X\) has \(\mathcal{P}\). A space \(X\) is called a \(\mathcal{P}\)-space if \(X\) has \(\mathcal{P}\). An extension \(Y\) of \(X\) is called a \(\mathcal{P}\)-extension of \(X\) if \(Y\) is a \(\mathcal{P}\)-space. Finally, assuming that \(X\) is not a \(\mathcal{P}\)-space but every point of \(X\) has a neighborhood possessing \(\mathcal{P}\), given an element \(p\notin X\), the authors describe the strongest topology \(\tau\) in \(Y=X\cup\{p\}\) such that \(Y\) equipped with \(\tau\) is a \(\mathcal{P}\)-extension of \(X\).