Discrete subspaces of countably tight compacta (Q2493905)

The main result of this paper is that under the assumption ``\(2^\kappa\) is a finite successor of \(\kappa\) for every cardinal \(\kappa\),'' in any countably tight compact \(T_2\) space there is a discrete subspace \(D\) with \(| \overline{D}| =| X| \). This gives a consistent confirmation of a conjecture of \textit{A. Dow} [Stud. Sci. Math. Hung. 42, 227--234 (2005; Zbl 1081.54004)]. Enroute to the proof of this result are two interesting lemmas: (1) Suppose \(X\) is countably compact and \(T_3\) and \(\lambda\) is a strong limit cardinal of countable cofinality, greater than the \(\pi\)-character of \(X\), and suppose \(| G| \geq \lambda\) for every nonempty open subset \(G\) of \(X\). Then \(X\) has a discrete subset \(D\) with \(| \overline {D}| \geq \lambda^\omega\). (2) Suppose \(\kappa\rightarrow(\lambda,\mu)^2\) and \(X\) is a \(T_3\) space with a left-separated subspace of cardinality \(\kappa\). Then either \(X\) has a discrete subset of size \(\lambda\) or a free sequence of length \(\mu\).