On iterated inverse limits (Q1601651)

The main result of the authors is the Theorem: Let \({\mathbf X} = (X_\lambda , p_{\lambda \lambda'}, \Lambda)\) be a cofinite system of compact Hausdorff spaces and let \({\mathbf p}: X \rightarrow {\mathbf X}\) be its limit. Then there exists a cofinite inverse system of compact polyhedra \({\mathbf Y}_\lambda \) with limits \({\mathbf q}_\lambda : X_\lambda \rightarrow {\mathbf Y}_\lambda\), \(\lambda \in \Lambda \) which admits a cofinite inverse system \({\mathbf Y}\), whose limit \({\mathbf q}: X \rightarrow {\mathbf Y}\) is compatible with \({\mathbf p}\) and \({\mathbf q}_\lambda\), \(\lambda \in \Lambda \). `cofinite' means, that every element of a directed set has only finitely many predecessors, while compatible is defined as it is expected to be. The authors show by an example, that the assertion of their main theorem is not necessarily true for a given system of polyhedral approximation of \(X_\lambda \). This main result turns out to be true not only for compact Hausdorff spaces, but for arbitrary spaces, whenever one replaces limit by resolution and finite polyhedra by ANR's (for metric spaces).