We prove that the locally convex space
of continuous real-valued functions on a Tychonoff space
equipped with the topology of pointwise convergence is distinguished if and only if
is a
-space in the sense of Knight in [Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 339 (1993), pp. 45–60]. As an application of this characterization theorem we obtain the following results: [1)] If
is a Čech-complete (in particular, compact) space such that
is distinguished, then
is scattered. [2)] For every separable compact space of the Isbell–Mrówka type
, the space
is distinguished. [3)] If
is the compact space of ordinals
, then
is not distinguished. We observe that the existence of an uncountable separable metrizable space
such that
is distinguished, is independent of ZFC. We also explore the question to which extent the class of
-spaces is invariant under basic topological operations.