On the Alexandroff-Borsuk problem (Q2400853): Difference between revisions

In [\textit{J. E. West}, Ann. Math. (2) 106, 1--18 (1977; Zbl 0375.57013)], a problem of Borsuk was answered in the affirmative, showing that every compact absolute neighborhood retract (ANR) is homotopy equivalent to a finite polyhedron. The following Alexandroff-Borsuk ANR Problem: ``Given any compact \(n\)-dimensional absolute neighborhood retract \(X^n\) and any \(\epsilon > 0\), does there exist an \(\epsilon\)-map \(f : X^n \to P^n\), onto a finite \(n\)-dimensional polyhedron \(P^n\) which is a homotopy equivalence?'' remained open. In this paper the Alexandroff-Borsuk problem for the category of non-triangulable manifolds is considered. Since every topological \(n\)-manifold is a separable metric locally Euclidean space of dimension \(n\), it is a locally contractible finite-dimensional space and therefore it is an ANR, thus, in view of the West theorem mentioned above, one has the following natural special Alexandroff-Borsuk Manifold Problem: ``Given a compact \(n\)-dimensional manifold \(M^n\) and \(\epsilon > 0\), does there exist an \(\epsilon\)-map of \(M^n\) onto a finite \(n\)-dimensional polyhedron \(P^n\) which is a homotopy equivalence?'' For every \(n \geq 4\), there exists a closed \(n\)-dimensional manifold which is not a polyhedron. Such manifolds were first constructed in [\textit{M. H. Freedman}, J. Differ. Geom. 17, 357--453 (1982; Zbl 0528.57011)] in dimension \(4\), in [\textit{D. Galewski} and \textit{R. Stern}, in: Geometric topology, Proc. Conf., Athens/Ga. 1977, 345--350 (1979; Zbl 0477.57010)] in dimension \(5\), and in [\textit{C. Manolescu}, J. Am. Math. Soc. 29, No. 1, 147--176 (2016; Zbl 1343.57015)] in dimensions \(n \geq 6\). The main result of the paper is then the following theorem: The Alexandroff-Borsuk Manifold Problem has an affirmative solution for the non triangulable closed manifolds of Freedman, Galewski and Stern, and Manolescu.