Josefson-Nissenzweig property for \(C_p\)-spaces (Q2331686)

For Tychonoff spaces \(X\), the authors investigate properties of the space \(C_p(X)\) of continuous functions on \(X\) endowed with the topology of pointwise convergence. Recall that the Josefson-Nissenzweig theorem states that the dual of every infinite-dimensional Banach space contains a weak\(^*\) null sequence of norm-one vectors. Motivated by this theorem, a space \(C_p(X)\) is said to satisfy the Josefson-Nissenzweig property if there is a sequence of finitely supported signed measures \((\mu_n)\) with \(\mu_n(f)\to 0\) for each \(f\in C_p(X)\) and \(\|\mu_n\|=1\), where the norm is the one of the Banach space \((C(\beta X))^*\). The authors address the following two problems. The first one asks for a characterisation of the compact spaces \(K\) for which \(C_p(K)\) admits an infinite-dimensional metrisable separable quotient. The second problem is to find a characterisation of the spaces \(C_p(K)\) which contain a complemented copy of \(c_0\) with the product topology of \(\mathbb{R}^{\mathbb{N}}\). The authors show that the Josefson-Nissenzweig property characterises a number of properties which are related to the first of these problems. They give a complete solution to the second problem by showing that the Josefson-Nissenzweig property charactersises the \(C_p(K)\) spaces containing a complemented copy of \(c_0\) with the product topology of \(\mathbb{R}^{\mathbb{N}}\).