The homotopy classes of continuous maps between some nonmetrizable manifolds (Q1767717)

This paper is about computation of homotopy classes of maps between some nonmetrizable manifolds. The main result is a complete classification of homotopy classes of continuous functions \({\mathbf R}^n\to {\mathbf R}\), where \({\mathbf R}\) is Alexandroff's long ray. Recall that \({\mathbf R}\) is \(\omega_1\times[0,1[\) endowed with the topology given by the lexicographic order \(\leq\). It is known that \({\mathbf R}\) can be made into a 1-dimensional \(({\mathcal C}^\infty)\) manifold, is sequential compact, nonmetrizable and noncontractible. The author motivates this investigation as follows: ``Firstly, any nonmetrizable manifold is compactly generated, and thus, according to G. W. Whitehead, fits in the natural category of homotopy theory [see, e.g., \textit{G. W. Whitehead}, Elements of homotopy theory (Graduate Texts in Mathematics 61, Berlin, Springer-Verlag) (1978; Zbl 0406.55001)]. Secondly, our manifolds provide a class of spaces \(X\) for which \(\Pi_i(X)= \{0\}\) for each \(i\in\omega\) while \([X,X]\) is finite but has at least two elements, so in particular, X is not contractible. (Notice that since \(\Pi_1(X)= \{0\}\), we do not need to bother about base points, and consider only free homotopy.) The noncontractibility does not come from the ``shape'' of \(X\) but rather from its ``wideness''. The third reason (of a more practical nature) is that the proofs are completely elementary, in the sense that we use only very basic facts about countable ordinals''. If \(I\subset\mathbb{N}\) and \(c\in{\mathbf R}^{n-|I|}\), the \(I\)-diagonal of height \(c\) is the set \[ \Delta_I(c)= \{x= (x_1,\dots, x_n)\in {\mathbf R}^n: x_i= x_{i'}, i,i'\in I\text{ and }x_{N\setminus I}= c\} \] and we abbreviate \(\Delta_I(0)\) by \(\Delta_I\). Notice that \(\Delta_I(c)\) is homeomorphic to \({\mathbf R}\). If \(f: {\mathbf R}^n\to {\mathbf R}\) is continuous and \(I\subset\mathbb{N}\), then \(f\) is called \(I\)-cofinal (respectively, \(I\)-bounded) if \(f\mid\Delta_I\) is unbounded (respectively, bounded). The cofinality class of \(f:{\mathbf R}^n\to{\mathbf R}\) is the set \({\mathfrak C}(f)= \{I\subset I\); \(f\) is \(I\)-cofinal\}. Finally, an antichain in a partially ordered set is a set of pairwise incomparable elements. The set \({\mathcal P}(N)\) is ordered by inclusion. The main results of the paper are the following theorems Theorem 1. Two continuous maps \(f,g: {\mathbf R}^n\to{\mathbf R}\) are homotopic if and only if \({\mathfrak C}(f)={\mathfrak C}(g)\). Theorem 2. The homotopy classes \([{\mathbf R}^n,{\mathbf R}]\) of continuous maps \({\mathbf R}^n\to{\mathbf R}\) are in bijection with the antichains \({\mathcal P}(N)\setminus\{\varnothing\}\). These results generalize a result of \textit{D. Gauld} [Papers on general topology and applications, Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 704, 142--149 (1993; Zbl 0824.57010)]. In the last section of the paper the author investigates some other nonmetrizable manifolds.