Decompositions into codimension two submanifolds: the nonorientable case (Q1083719)

The author's result is this: if G is an upper semicontinuous decomposition of an \((n+2)\)-manifold into continua having the shape of closed n-manifolds, then the decomposition space is a 2-manifold with boundary. The result is a sequel to an earlier result of the author with \textit{J. J. Walsh} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 288, 273-291 (1985; Zbl 0568.57013)] which made orientability assumptions. The technical algebraic tool is a local mod 2 version of the winding function introduced by Coram and Duvall. The principal topological tool is a characterization of the 2-cell by Zippin.