Compact factors in finally compact products of topological spaces (Q820091)

The main theme of this paper is the following phenomenon: If a product of topological spaces satisfies some given compactness property, then the factors satisfy a stronger compactness property except for a small number of factors. For example, a classical result of A. H. Stone implies that if a product space is Lindelöf, then all but at most a countable number of factors are compact. In this paper, the author proves some theorems on this theme which imply (1)--(5) below as special cases. For an infinite cardinal \(\kappa\), a space \(X\) is called \textit{finally \(\kappa\)-compact} if every open cover of \(X\) has a subcover \({\mathcal V}\) with \(| {\mathcal V}| <\kappa\). (1) If a product space is finally \(\aleph_{n+1}\)-compact, then all but at most \(\aleph_n\) factors are compact. A space is called \textit{linearly Lindelöf} if every open cover which is linearly ordered by inclusion has a countable subcover. (2) If a product space is linearly Lindelöf, then all but at most countably many factors are compact. (3) If a product space is finally \(\aleph_\omega\)-compact, then either all factors are countably compact or all factors are compact except possibly for a set having cardinality less than \(\aleph_\omega\). For infinite cardinals \(\kappa\) and \(\lambda\), a space \(X\) is called \textit{\([\kappa,\lambda]\)-compact} if every open cover \({\mathcal U}\) of \(X\) with \(| {\mathcal U}| \leq\lambda\) has a subcover \({\mathcal V}\) with \(| {\mathcal V}| <\kappa\), and is called \textit{initially \(\kappa\)-compact} if it is \([\omega,\kappa]\)-compact. (4) If a product space is \([\aleph_{n+1},\aleph_{n+1}]\)-compact, then all but at most \(\aleph_n\) factors are initially \(\aleph_{n+1}\)-compact. (5) If a product space is \([\aleph_\omega,\aleph_\omega]\)-compact, then either all factors are countably compact or all factors are initially \(\aleph_\omega\)-compact except possibly for a set of cardinality less than \(\aleph_\omega\).