Locally constant functions
Volume 150 / 1996
Abstract
Let X be a compact Hausdorff space and M a metric space. is the set of f ∈ C(X,M) such that there is a dense set of points x ∈ X with f constant on some neighborhood of x. We describe some general classes of X for which E_0(X,M) is all of C(X,M). These include βℕ\ℕ, any nowhere separable LOTS, and any X such that forcing with the open subsets of X does not add reals. In the case where M is a Banach space, we discuss the properties of E_0(X,M) as a normed linear space. We also build three first countable Eberlein compact spaces, F,G,H, with various E_0 properties. For all metric M, E_0(F,M) contains only the constant functions, and E_0(G,M) = C(G,M). If M is the Hilbert cube or any infinite-dimensional Banach space, then E_0(H,M) ≠ C(H,M), but E_0(H,M) = C(H,M) whenever M ⊆ ℝ^n for some finite n.