Embeddings into countably compact Hausdorff spaces (Q6148015)

A space can be embedded in a compact Hausdorff space if and only if it is Tychonoff. In this paper, the authors address the following natural problem: which spaces can be embedded in a countably compact Hausdorff space? They do not obtain a full characterization, but do obtain some quite interesting partial results. For example, if \(X\) is first-countable and can be embedded in a countably compact Hausdorff space, then it is regular. As is shown, first-countability in this result cannot be weaked even to having countable pseudocharacter. It is also shown that in a Lindelöf subspace of a countably compact Hausdorff space, every infinite closed discrete subspace contains an infinite strongly discrete subspace. The paper contains several other results in the same spirit. An example is constructed of a regular first-countable space that cannot be embedded as an open subspace in a Hausdorff countably compact space, nor as a subspace in a Urysohn countably compact space, but \emph{can} be embedded in a Hausdorff totally countably compact space. The dominating number \(\mathfrak d\) plays a role in the construction.