Extensions by means of expansions and selections (Q2432520)

When we start to learn topology, we learn the Tietze Extension Theorem which characterizes the normality of a space \(X\) in terms of extensions of real continuous functions given on closed sets. Another formulation says: \(X\) is normal if and only if every closed subset is \(C\)-embedded in \(X\). In general, a subset \(S\) of a space \(X\) is \(C\)-embedded in \(X\) if every map \(f:S \to \mathbb R\) can be extended to \(X\), i.e. \(\mathbb R = AE(X,S)\). If this is true for every bounded map \(f:S \to \mathbb R\), then we say that \(S\) is \(C^*\)-embedded in \(X\). One of the main results of this paper is the following characterization of \(C^*\)-embedded subsets in terms of Banach-valued functions, where for a space \(Y\), \(C(Y)\) denotes the set of all non-empty compact subsets of \(Y\): A subset \(S\) of a space \(X\) is \(C^*\)-embedded in \(X\) if and only if whenever \(Y\) is a Banach space and \(\phi: X \to C(X)\) is a continuous mapping, every continuous selection \(g : \to Y\) for \(\phi| S\) can be extended to a continuous map \(G: X \to Y\). Another special embedding studied in the paper is the following: A subset \(S\) is \(U^\lambda\)-embedded in \(X\) if every locally finite collection \(\mathcal{U}\) of subsets of \(S\), with \(| \mathcal{U}| \leq \lambda\), is uniformly locally finite in \(X\). This means that there exists a locally finite cozero-set cover \(\mathcal{V}\) of \(X\) such that every \(V \in \mathcal{V}\) intersects at most finitely many elements of \(\mathcal{U}\). Here is the characterization of \(U^\lambda\)-embeddings in terms of Banach-valued functions: Let \(\lambda\) be an infinite cardinal. Then a subset \(S\) of a space \(X\) is \(U^\lambda\)-embedded in \(X\) if and only if for every Banach space \(Y\), with \(w(Y) \leq \lambda\), and every continuous map \(g:S \to Y\), there exists a continuous mapping \(\phi:X \to C(Y)\) such that \(g\) is a selection of \(\phi | S\). The paper contains a sequence of other mapping-characterizations of \(C\)-embedding, \(z\)-embedding, \(P^\lambda\)-embedding, well-embedding and, of course, apparatus needed to prove these results.