If Cp(X) is strongly dominated by a second countable space, then X is countable.

We establish that a Tychonoff space X is countable if and only if C p ( X ) is strongly dominated by a second countable space. The same is true for a compact space K such that C p ( K , [ 0 , 1 ] ) is strongly dominated by a second countable space. We also prove that strong domination by a second countable space of the complement of the diagonal of a Tychonoff space X implies that X is an ℵ 0 -space. Our results solve several published open questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]