Normality on dense countable subspaces (Q2740962)

The notion of normality on a subspace of a topological space was introduced by \textit{A. V. Arkhangel'skij} in his survey on relative properties [Topology Appl. 70, No. 2-3, 87-99 (1996; Zbl 0848.54016)]. A space \(X\) is called normal on a subspace \(Y\) if any pair of disjoint closed subsets \(F\) and \(G\) of \(X\) with \(\overline{F\cap Y}=F\) and \(\overline{G\cap Y}=G\) can be separated by open sets in \(X\). This paper provides some illuminating examples around the question of when a space \(X\) is normal on the dense countable subspaces. Among others, the following results are given: (1) Arkhangel'skij has proved that there is a dense countable subset \(A\) of \(\mathbb R^{c}\) such that \(\mathbb R^{c}\) is not normal on \(A\) and asked whether \(\mathbb R^{c}\) is non-normal on any countable dense subspace? The authors prove that the answer to this question is negative under the Continuum Hypothesis; (2) there exists a separable non-regular Hausdorff space which is not normal while being normal on any countable dense subspace; and (3) an example of a Tikhonov separable space \(X\) is found such that \(X\) is not normal on any countable dense subspace. The paper is finished with the formulation of several interesting open questions on the topic.