Special open sets in manifold calculus (Q2340449)

Given a smooth manifold \(M\), manifold calculus of functors, due to \textit{M. Weiss} [Geom. Topol. 3, 67--101 (1999; Zbl 0927.57027); erratum ibid. 15, No. 1, 407--409 (2011)] is concerned with studying contravariant functors \(F\) (satisfying some mild conditions) from the poset \(\mathcal O(M)\) of open subsets of \(M\) to the category of topological spaces (or spectra). A central notion in the theory is that of a polynomial functor of degree \(k\). Weiss shows that such a functor is determined by its behavior on \(\mathcal O_k(M)\), a full subcategory of \(\mathcal O(M)\) consisting of open subsets of \(M\) diffeomorphic to at most \(k\) disjoint open balls. This leads to the notion of a \(k\)th degree Taylor polynomial approximation \(T_k\) of \(F\) defined as the homotopy limit \[ T_kF(V)=\underset{U\in\mathcal O_k(V)}{\text{holim}}F(U), \] where \(V\) is an open subset of \(M\). In the paper under review, the author generalizes the characterization of polynomial functors and shows that, in order to describe a degree \(k\) polynomial functor, it suffices to consider what it does on a certain subposet \(\mathcal B_k(M)\) of \(\mathcal O_k(M)\). Namely, if \(\mathcal B_1(M)\) is a basis for the topology on \(M\), then an element of \(\mathcal B_k(M)\) is simply a disjoint union of up to \(k\) pairwise disjoint elements of \(\mathcal B_1(M)\). An example of \(\mathcal B_k(M)\) is \(\mathcal O_k(M)\) itself. The author shows that polynomial functors are determined by their behavior on \(\mathcal B_k(M)\) and establishes several other results that parallel those in [Zbl 0927.57027]. The main theorem of the paper is that, if \(\mathcal B_1'(M)\subset \mathcal B_1(M)\) (from which it follows that \(\mathcal B_k'(M)\subset \mathcal B_k(M)\), then the homotopy limit of \(F(V)\) over \(\mathcal B_k(V)\) is homotopy equivalent to the homotopy limit of the restriction of \(F(V)\) to \(\mathcal B_k'(V)\). From this it immediately follows that the functor \[ V\mapsto \underset{U\in\mathcal B_k(V)}{\text{holim}}F(U) \] is polynomial of degree \(k\). Thus the construction of the Taylor tower for \(F\) can as well be performed over \(\mathcal B_k\) rather than over \(\mathcal O_k\). This is very useful since, depending on the situation, it might be easier or more beneficial to use simplices, cubes, etc. as open sets upon which the Taylor tower can be built. The paper is nicely written, self-contained, and provides all the necessary background and details.