Extension of maps into nilpotent spaces. III. (Q2577112)

Generalizing their earlier results [\textit{A. Dranishnikov}, Mat. Sb. 182, No. 9, 1300--1310 (1991; Zbl 0774.55011)] and [\textit{M. Cencelj} and \textit{A. Dranishnikov}, Topology Appl. 124, No. 1, 77--83 (2002; Zbl 1028.55003) and Can. Math. Bull. 44, No. 3, 266--269 (2001; Zbl 0989.55001)], the authors prove that for a nilpotent CW-complex \(M\) and a finite-dimensional metric compactum \(X\) the following conditions are equivalent: (1) \(\text{e-dim}\, X\leq M\), where e-dim denotes extension dimension, which means that each continuous map \(f:A\to M\) defined on a closed subspace \(A\) of \(X\) extends to a continuous map \(\bar f:X\to M\)), (2) \(\text{e-dim}\, X\leq SP^\infty M\) where \(SP^\infty M\) stands for the infinite symmetric power of \(M\), (3) \(\dim_{H_i(M)}X\leq i\) for every \(i>0\), where \(\dim_{H_i(M)}\) denotes cohomological dimension, (4) \(\dim_{\pi_i(M)}X\leq i\) for every \(i>0\). A CW-complex \(M\) is nilpotent if the action of the fundamental group \(\pi_1(M)\) on each homotopy group \(\pi_n(M)\) is nilpotent, where an action of a group \(G\) on a group \(H\) is nilpotent if there is a \(G\)-invariant normal stratification \(H=H_1\supset H_2\supset\dots\supset H_n=\{e\}\) such that \(H_i/H_{i+1}\) is abelian and the induced action of \(G\) on \(H_i/H_{i+1}\) is trivial for all \(i\). The proof of the principal result is not trivial and uses some advanced tools like Lyndon-Hochschild-Serre spectral sequences. As a by-product of the proof the authors find conditions on a nilpotent group \(N\) guaranteeing the equivalence \(\dim_NX\leq 1\Leftrightarrow \dim_{Ab N}X\leq 1\) for any metric compactum \(X\).