On a question of Maarten Maurice (Q2493879)

A space is perfect if each closed set is \(G_\delta\) and is \(\sigma\)-closed-discrete if it is a countable union of closed discrete subspaces. It is well-known that in the class of generalized orderable (or GO-) spaces each space which has a \(\sigma\)-closed-discrete dense subspace is perfect. The converse is known to be consistently false -- a Souslin line is a counterexample -- but Maarten Maurice has asked whether there is a model of ZFC in which every perfect GO-space has a dense \(\sigma\)-closed-discrete subspace. In the paper under review, the authors first study the structure of perfect GO-spaces and among other results they show that every first category subspace \(S\) of a perfect GO-space \(X\) has a dense (in \(S\)) subspace which is \(\sigma\)-closed-discrete in \(X\). The main results of the final section are that it is undecidable in ZFC (1) whether a perfect GO-space of local density \(\omega_1\) must have a dense \(\sigma\)-closed-discrete subspace and (2) whether a perfect GO-space of local density \(\omega_1\) and having a point-countable base must be metrizable.