Normal sequences in all scales (Q2435269)

The fundamental Alexandroff and Urysohn metrization theorem says that a \(T_1\)-space \(X\) is metrizable if and only if there is a sequence \(\{{\mathcal U}_n:n\in{\mathbb N}\}\) of open covers of \(X\) such that it is a normal sequence (that is, \({\mathcal U}_{n+1}\) is a star-refinement of \({\mathcal U}_n\) for each \(n\in{\mathbb N}\) ) and \(\{\text{St}(x,{\mathcal U}_n):n\in{\mathbb N}\}\) is a base at each point \(x\in X\). Applying the idea of the metrization theorem, the author introduces the notion of \textit{all-scale, large-scale and small-scale normal sequence}. Let \({\mathfrak U}=\{{\mathcal U}_i:i\in{\mathbb Z}\}\) be a family of open covers of a space \(X\) (note that \(i\) runs through all integers). \(\mathfrak U\) is called an \textit{all-scale normal sequence} on \(X\) if each \({\mathcal U}_{i+1}\) is a star-refinement of \({\mathcal U}_i\), for each \(x,x'\in X\), there are an \(i\in{\mathbb Z}\) and \(U\in{\mathcal U}_i\) such that \(x,x'\in U\), and \(\{\text{St}(x,{\mathcal U}_i):i\in{\mathbb Z}\}\) is a base at each point \(x\in X\). The subfamily \(\{{\mathcal U}_i:i\geq i_0\}\) of \(\mathfrak U\) for some \(i_0\in{\mathbb Z}\) is called a \textit{small-scale normal sequence} if \({\mathcal U}_{i+1}\) is a star-refinement of \({\mathcal U}_i\) for each \(i\geq i_0\) and \(\{\text{St}(x,{\mathcal U}_i):i\geq i_0\}\) is a base at each point \(x\in X\). The subfamily \(\{{\mathcal U}_i:i\leq i_0\}\) of \(\mathfrak U\) for some \(i_0\in{\mathbb Z}\) is called a \textit{large-scale normal sequence} if \({\mathcal U}_{i+1}\) is a star-refinement of \({\mathcal U}_i\) for each \(i<i_0\) and for each \(x,x'\in X\), there are an \(i\leq i_0\) and \(U\in{\mathcal U}_i\) such that \(x,x'\in U\). Let \(X\) be a metrizable space. The author uses the notion of all-scale normal sequence to study the metric function \(d_{\mathfrak U}\) and the Lipschitz category, and to characterize the Assouad-Nagata dimension. He uses the notion of small-scale normal sequence to study the uniform category and the topological category, and to characterize the large uniform dimension and the covering dimension. He uses the notion of large-scale normal sequence to study to the coarse category, quasi-isometric maps, the asymptotic dimension and the asymptotic Assouad-Nagata dimension.