Normal images of the product and countably paracompact condensation (Q2307615)

The question of finding a coarser topology preserving a certain property of a topological space has been studied by many authors, among them Banach, Katětov, Dowker, Rudin, Tamano, Kunen, Buzyakova, Pavlov, and Pytkeev. One says that $X$ can be condensed onto $Y$ if $Y$ is the same set as $X$ with a topology coarser than that of $X$. In the first section, the author gives a detailed introduction to certain results of these authors. The concepts ``condensation'' and ``the product of a space with a compact space'' merged in 1997 when Buzyakova [\textit{R. Z. Buzjakova}, Quest. Answers Gen. Topology 15, No. 2, 167--172 (1997; Zbl 0997.54032)] proved: Let $X$ be pseudocompact Tychonoff and $\kappa = |\beta X|^+$. Then $X \times (\kappa + 1)$ can be condensed onto a normal space if and only if $X$ can be condensed onto a compact Hausdorff space. A result of Pavlov implies (by a result of Dowker) that there exists a normal space $\hat{X}$ with the property that $\hat{X} \times \mathbb{I}$ cannot be condensed onto a normal space. As a Tychonoff pseudocompact paracompact space is compact, a natural question is whether one can prove some variant of Buzyakova's theorem. As an answer, the author proves her main theorem: Let $X$ be Tychonoff and $\kappa = (2^{2^{|X|}})^+$. Then we have: if $X \times (\kappa + 1)$ can be condensed onto a normal space, then $X$ can be condensed onto a normal countably paracompact (every countable open cover has a locally finite open refinement) space. The proof involves numerous steps. The paper ends with a number of research questions.