Realcompactness in maximal and submaximal spaces (Q2384411)

A topological space \(X\) is called \textit{submaximal} if every subset of \(X\) is locally closed, and \(X\) is called \textit{maximal} if the topology of \(X\) is maximal in the collection of all topologies on \(X\) with no isolated points. This paper studies realcompactness of submaximal or maximal Tychonoff spaces. The authors answer a question by \textit{O. T. Alas, M. Sanchis, M. G. Tkačenko, V. V. Tkachuk} and \textit{R. G. Wilson} [Topology Appl. 107, 259--273 (2000; Zbl 0984.54002)] by constructing a variety of examples of non-realcompact submaximal spaces and of non-realcompact maximal spaces. In particular, they prove a theorem which implies the following results (i) and (ii) as corollaries: (i) Let \(M\) be a separable metric space consisting of more than one point. For each infinite \(\kappa\), there is a dense submaximal normal (and hence, perfectly normal) subspace of \(M^{2^\kappa}\) of cardinality \(\kappa\); (ii) There is a separable submaximal non-realcompact subspace of \(I^{2^\omega}\) of cardinality \(\omega_1\). The result (i) answers another question asked in the paper quoted above. It is also proved that a normal submaximal space of a non-Ulam-measurable cardinality is realcompact. This shows that one cannot make the space \(X\) stated in (ii) normal.