Unions of F-spaces (Q2862935)

A~closed subset~\(A\) of a~space~\(X\) is a~\(P\)-set if the intersection of any countable family of neighborhoods of~\(A\) is a~neighborhood of~\(A\). A~closed set~\(A\) of a~space~\(X\) is said to be nicely placed in~\(X\) if for every neighborhood~\(U\) of~\(A\) there is a~cozero-set~\(V\) in~\(X\) such that \(A\subseteq V\subseteq U\). The main result of the paper says that if a~space~\(X\) is the union of not more than \(\omega_1\)~many \(P\)-subsets that are nicely placed \(C^*\)-embedded \(F\)-subspaces of~\(X\), then \(X\)~is an \(F\)-space. The authors present examples showing that \(\omega_1\) cannot be replaced by~\(\omega_2\) and the assumption that the covering subspaces are are nicely placed in~\(X\) cannot be dropped in the theorem. The authors also show that assuming \(2^{\omega_1}=\omega_2\) a~nicely placed \(P\)-subset of an \(F\)-space~\(X\) need not be \(C^*\)-embedded in~\(X\).