The Ascoli property for function spaces and the weak topology of Banach and Fréchet spaces (Q2809358)

Let \(X\) be a Hausdorff topological space. Let \(co\) denote the topology on the space \(C(X)\) of all continuous functions on \(X\) of uniform convergence on the compact subsets of \(X\). A subset \(\mathcal{K}\) of \(C(X)\) is called evenly continuous if the restriction of the evaluation map \(\Psi: X \times (C(X),co) \rightarrow \mathbb{R}\), \((x, f(x)) \mapsto f(x)\), is jointly continuous on \(X \times \mathcal{K}\). An Ascoli space is a completely regular Hausdorff topological space in which every compact set is evenly continuous. \textit{N. Noble} proved in [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 143, 393--411 (1969; Zbl 0229.54017)] that every \(k_{\mathbb{R}}\)-space is Ascoli. The reverse implication does not hold.NEWLINENEWLINEThe authors prove, among others, the following results: (1) Let \(X\) be metrizable. The space \((C(X),co)\) is Ascoli if and only if it is a \(k_{\mathbb{R}}\)-space, if and only if \(X\) is locally compact. (2) A Banach space \(E\) is Ascoli for its weak topology if and only if it is finite dimensional. (3) A Fréchet space \(E\) that is a quojection (i.e., the quotient of a countable product of Banach spaces) is Ascoli if and only if \(E\) is either finite dimensional or isomorphic to a countable product of copies of the scalar field. (4) The closed unit ball \(B\) of a Banach space \(E\) is Ascoli for the weak topology if and only if the Banach space \(E\) does not contain an isomorphic copy of the Banach space \(\ell_1\). (5) A Fréchet space \(E\) does not contain an isomorphic copy of the Banach space \(\ell_1\) if and only if every closed convex bounded subset of \(E\) is Ascoli in the weak topology.