Universal separable metrizable spaces of given cohomological dimension (Q1346184)

The author proves that whenever \(K\) is a countable CW-complex, then there exists a universal separable metrizable space \(X\) with \(K\in AE(X)\). The property of being universal means that for every separable metrizable space \(Y\) with \(K \in AE(Y)\), there exists an embedding of \(Y\) into \(X\). By \(K \in AE(X)\) we mean that if \(A\) is closed in \(X\) and \(f:A \to Y\) is a map, then there is a map \(F : X \to K\) extending \(f\), i.e., \(K\) is an absolute extensor for \(X\). As a corollary, one gets that for every countable abelian group \(G\), there exists a universal separable metrizable space \(X\) for cohomological dimension \(\dim_ G = n\) with coefficients in \(G\). For the case \(G = \mathbb{Z}\), the result was proved in [\textit{J. Dydak} and \textit{J. Mogilski}, Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 122, No. 3, 943-948 (1994; Zbl 0823.54026), see the review above]. The author also shows that such universal spaces exist if \(G\) is a torsion group. For an arbitrary abelian group \(G\), there is a separable metrizable space \(X\) with \(\dim_ G X \leq n + 1\) and such that for every separable metrizable space \(Y\) with \(\dim_ G Y \leq n\), there exists an embedding of \(Y\) into \(X\).