On \({\mathbb{R}}^{\infty}\)-manifolds and \(Q^{\infty}\)-manifolds (Q1060469)

Let \({\mathbb{R}}^{\infty}=dir \lim \{{\mathbb{R}}^ 1\hookrightarrow {\mathbb{R}}^ 2\hookrightarrow...\}\) and \(Q^{\infty}=dir \lim \{Q^ 1\hookrightarrow Q^ 2\hookrightarrow...\}\); here \({\mathbb{R}}^ n\) is identified with \({\mathbb{R}}^ n\times \{0\}\subset {\mathbb{R}}^{n+1}\) and \(Q^ n\) is a Z-set in the Hilbert cube \(Q^{n+1}\). A paracompact manifold modeled on \(Q^{\infty}\) \(({\mathbb{R}}^{\infty})\) is called a \(Q^{\infty}\)-manifold (\({\mathbb{R}}^{\infty}\)-manifold). The main result of the paper characterizes \(Q^{\infty}\)-manifolds \(({\mathbb{R}}^{\infty}\)-manifolds) among the countable direct limits of (finite dimensional) compact metric spaces. Specifically, such a direct limit X is a \(Q^{\infty}\)-manifold \(({\mathbb{R}}^{\infty}\)-manifold) if and only if each embedding of a closed subset A of the (finite dimensional) compact metric space B into X can be extended to an embedding from some neighborhood of A in B into X. The proof is quite elementary, and the technique also yields a number of previously known results about \(Q^{\infty}\)-manifolds and \({\mathbb{R}}^{\infty}\)-manifolds.