Cones that are cells, and an application to hyperspaces (Q1807567)

Let \(Y\) denote a compact metric space which is not a sphere. The authors prove that if the cone over \(Y\) is an \(n\)-cell, then \(Y\times [0,1]\) is also an \(n\)-cell and, when \(n<5\), \(Y\) itself must be an \((n-1)\)-cell. A useful technical result obtained along the way is that for any compact metric space \(Z\), the cone over (the cone over \(Z)\) is homeomorphic to the cone over the suspension of \(Z\). They use this sort of analysis to answer a recent question about hyperspaces of simple \(m\)-ods being equivalent to cones over unique compacta.