2-dimensional polyhedra with finite depth (Q1646537)

A topological space \(X\) is homotopy dominated by a space \(Y\) if there exist maps \(f:X\to Y,\ g:Y\to X\) such that \(gf\) is homotopic to \(id_X\); notation \(X\geq Y\). Let \(P\) be a finite polyhedron and let \(P\geq X_1\geq X_2\geq \dots\) be a sequence of homotopy dominations. In this situation one asks if such a sequence contains only finitely many homotopy dominations that are not homotopy equivalences, or if there exists an integer \(l_P\) (depending on \(P\) but not on the sequence) such that each sequence contains at most \(l_P\) homotopy dominations that are not homotopy equivalences. This is related to Problem \(1436\) of \textit{M. Moron} in [``Problems from the Madrid department of geometry and topology'', in: \textit{E. Pearl} (ed.), Open problems in topology. II. Amsterdam: Elsevier (2007; Zbl 1158.54300), pp. 669--673] and also to the famous problem of K. Borsuk of deciding if two compact ANR's homotopy dominating each other have the same homotopy type [\textit{K. Borsuk}, Theory of retracts. PWN - Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, Warszawa (1967; Zbl 0153.52905)]. In this paper, for \(\mathrm{dim}\ P = 2\), it is shown that the answers to all the problems above depend only on the properties of the fundamental group of \(P\) (for \(1\)-dimensional polyhedra, the answers are obvious). It is also shown that in case the sequences in consideration contain only finite polyhedra, then, for the positive answer it suffices to answer positively the analog of our topological question for finitely presented groups (the fundamental groups) with retractions.