Characterizing function spaces which have the property (B) of Banakh

Abstract: A topological space $Y$ has the property (B) of Banakh if there is a countable family ${A_n:n\in \mathbb{N}}$ of closed nowhere dense subsets of $Y$ absorbing all compact subsets of $Y$. In this note we show that the space $C_p(X)$ of continuous real-valued functions on a Tychonoff space $X$ with the topology of pointwise convergence, fails to satisfy the property (B) if and only if the space $X$ has the following property $(\kappa)$: every sequence of disjoint finite subsets of $X$ has a subsequence with point--finite open expansion. Additionally, we provide an analogous characterization for the compact--open topology on $C(X)$. Finally, we give examples of Tychonoff spaces $X$ whose all bounded subsets are finite, yet $X$ fails to have the property $(\kappa)$. This answers a question of Tkachuk.