Feral dual spaces and (strongly) distinguished spaces \(C(X)\) (Q6042189)

The paper is dedicated to the study of locally convex spaces, in particular of spaces of the form \(C_p(X)\) and \(C_k(X)\). Here, for a Tychonoff space \(X\), \(C_p(X)\) and \(C_k(X)\) denote the vector space \(C(X)\) of all real-valued continuous functions on \(X\) endowed with the pointwise topology and the compact-open topology, respectively. Recall that a locally convex space \(E\) is \textit{distinguished} if its strong dual \(E_\beta'\) is barrelled (namely, if every absolutely convex, absorbing, and closed subset of \(E_\beta'\) is a neighbourhood of the origin). Section 2 of the article has partially a survey flavour and collects several equivalent conditions for \(C_p(X)\) being distinguished (Theorem 6). Even in the case of known characterisations, a self-contained (and often new) proof is given. Among the equivalent properties is the fact that the strong dual of \(C_p(X)\) carries the finest locally convex topology. This motivates the notion of strongly distinguished locally convex space (Definition 1): a locally convex space \(E\) is \textit{strongly distinguished} if its strong dual \(E_\beta'\) carries the finest locally convex topology (equivalently, if every absolutely convex and absorbing subset of \(E_\beta'\) is a neighbourhood of the origin). The second part of the article is dedicated to feral locally convex spaces: a locally convex space \(E\) is \textit{feral} if bounded sets in \(E\) are finite-dimensional. A result from [\textit{J. C. Ferrando} et al., Funct. Approximatio, Comment. Math. 50, No. 2, 389--399 (2014; Zbl 1319.46002)] states that the strong dual of \(C_p(X)\) is feral, for each Tychonoff space \(X\). Generalising this result, the authors give a characterisation of those locally convex spaces whose strong dual is feral (Theorem 7). Among the applications of this result is the following neat characterisation of spaces \(C_k(X)\) with feral strong dual (Theorem 2): the strong dual of \(C_k(X)\) is feral if and only if every compact subset of \(X\) is finite. Together with results from Section 2, this also yields a characterisation of those \(C_k(X)\) spaces that are strongly distinguished (Corollary 2).