The Mackey problem for free locally convex spaces
Abstract It is known that the free locally convex space {L(X)} on a space X is metrizable only if X is finite and that {L(X)} is barrelled if and only if X is discrete. We significantly generalize these results by proving that {L(X)} is a Mackey space if and only if X is discrete. Noting that real locally convex spaces which are Mackey groups are always Mackey spaces, but that the converse is false, it is also proved here that {L(X)} is a Mackey group if and only if it is a Mackey space.