On universality of finite products of Polish spaces (Q2565498)

The authors introduce and study in this paper the \(n\)-dimensional Perfect Homotopy Approximation Property (briefly \(n\)-PHAP). A space \(X\) is said to have this property if for any map \(f:K\rightarrow X\) from a simplicial complex \(K\) with dim \(K\leq n\) and any open cover \(\mathcal{U}\) of \(X\) there is a perfect map \(g:K\rightarrow X,\) \(\mathcal{U}\)-homotopic to \(f\). Among other things, the authors prove that if a space \(X\) has \(n\)-PHAP, then \(X\) has the discrete \(n\)-cells property and that the product \(X\times Y\) of a space \(X\) with \(n\)-PHAP and a space \(Y\) with \(m\)-PHAP has \((n+m+1)\)-PHAP. As a consequence of this they show that for a (nowhere locally compact) locally connected Polish space \(X\) without free arcs and for each \(n\geq 0\) the power \(X^{n+1}\) contains a closed topological copy of each at most \(n\)-dimensional compact (resp. Polish) space.