ON THE STRICT COMPLETION OF A NEARNESS SPACE (Q2729655)

For every nearness space \(X\) there exist a nearness space \(X^*\) and a uniformly continuous mapping \(e_X:X\to X^*\) which have the following properties: (i) \(X^*\) is complete; (ii) the underlying topology of \(X^*\) is \(T_1\); (iii) \(e_X\) is a strict initial dense mapping. The space \(X^*\) and the embedding \(e_X:X\to X^*\) were constructed by \textit{H. Herrlich} in his seminal paper on nearness spaces [General Topol. Appl. 4, 191-212 (1974; Zbl 0288.54004)]. It is called the strict completion of \(X\). In [Quaest. Math. 2, 23-43 (1977; Zbl 0369.54013)] \textit{H. L. Bentley} has stated without proof that the above mentioned properties (i)--(iii) actually characterize the strict completion, i.e. if \(f:X\to Y\) is a strict initial dense uniformly continuous mapping, \(Y\) is complete, and the underlying topology of \(Y\) is \(T_1\), then \(Y\) is isomorphic to \(X^*\). This claim is now proved in the present paper.