An intrinsic characterization of the shape of paracompacta by means of non-continuous single-valued maps (Q1340240)

The author gives an internal characterization of the shape of paracompact spaces in terms of noncontinuous maps, extending in this way previous work by J. E. Felt and the reviewer on the class of metric compacta. In order to reach this objective, the author develops a homotopy theory of \(\nu\)-continuous maps (where \(\nu\) is a normal open covering of the codomain of the map) and proves an approximation lemma which allows him to approximate every \(\nu\)-continuous map by a continuous one. Then he proceeds to construct a category (HANp) whose objects are paracompact spaces and whose morphisms are homotopy classes of approximate nets, i.e. nets of \(\nu\)-continuous maps. The main result in the paper states that two paracompact spaces have the same shape if and only if they are isomorphic objects of the category HANp).