\(UV^{\infty}\)-maps that are fine homotopy equivalences (Q1122182)

Throughout, all spaces will be metrizable and all maps will be continuous. A proper map \(f: X\to Y\) is defined to be \(UV^{\infty}\) provided for any y in Y and for any neighborhood U of y, there exists a neighborhood V of y such that \(f^{-1}(V)\) contracts in \(f^{-1}(U)\). The concept of \(UV^{\infty}\)-map is an extension of the well-known notion of cell-like map, see \textit{R. C. Lacher} [Bull. Am. Math. Soc. 83, 495-552 (1977; Zbl 0364.54009)] for an excellent survey of results on cell-like maps. The first named author has extended several useful results from cell-like maps to \(UV^{\infty}\)-maps [Ph. D. Thesis, Univ. Tennessee (1986)]. In this paper, a notion of slice-trivial maps is introduced, compare \textit{F. D. Ancel} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 287, 1-40 (1985; Zbl 0546.54020)], and the following main theorem is proved: Suppose f: \(X\to Y\) is a \(UV^{\infty}\)-map such that (1) X is an ANR, (2) there exists a sequence \(\{C_ i\}^{\infty}_{i=1}\) of closed subsets of Y such that Y-\(\cup^{\infty}_{i=1}C_ i\) is countable dimensional, and (3) for each i, \(1\leq i<\infty\), f is slice-trivial over each \(C_ i\). Then, f is a fine homotopy equivalence and Y is an ANR. The following corollary appears interesting: If f: \(X\to Y\) is a \(UV^{\infty}\)-map such that X is an ANR and Y has countable dimension, then f is a fine homotopy equivalence and Y is an ANR.