Large scale absolute extensors (Q340724)

\textit{A. N. Dranishnikov} et al. [Topology 37, No. 4, 791--803 (1998; Zbl 0910.54026)] proved that the covering dimension \(\dim (\nu X)\) of the Higson corona \(\nu X\) of a proper metric space \(X\) does not exceed the asymptotic dimension \(\mathrm{adsim} (X)\) of \(X\), and \textit{A. N. Dranishnikov} [Russ. Math. Surv. 55, No. 6, 1085--1129 (2000; Zbl 1028.54032); translation from Usp. Mat. Nauk 55, No. 6, 71--116 (2000)] proved that \(\dim (\nu X) = \mathrm{adsim} (X)\) provided \(X\) is a proper metric space of finite asymptotic dimension. In this paper the authors give alternative proofs of the above theorems in terms of extensions of slowly oscillating functions to spheres. For metric spaces \((X,d_X)\) and \((Y,d_Y)\) and \(x_0 \in X\), a (not necessarily continuous) function \(f: X\to Y\) is said to be slowly oscillating if for every \(R, \epsilon >0\) there is \(N>0\) such that for any \(x, y \in X\) with \(d_X(x_0,x) >N\), if \(d_X(x,y)< R\), then \(d_Y(f(x),f(y)) <\epsilon\). A metric space \(K\) is called a large scale absolute extensor of a metric space \(X\) if for any subset \(A\) of \(X\) and any slowly oscillating function \(f: A \to K\) there exists an extension \(g : X \to K\) of \(f\) that is slowly oscillating. Let \(S^n\) be the \(n\)-dimensional unit sphere in the (\(n+1\))-dimensional Euclidean space. After establishing properties on large scale absolute extensors, the authors prove the following theorems: For a proper metric space \(X\) and \(n \geq 0\), \(\dim(\nu X) \leq n\) if and only if \(S^n\) is a large scale absolute extensor of \(X\); if \(X\) is a metric space of \(\mathrm{asdim} (X) \leq n\), then \(S^n\) is a large scale absolute extensor of \(X\); and if \(X\) is a metric space of finite asymptotic dimension such that \(S^n\) is a large scale absolute extensor of \(X\), then \(\mathrm{asdim} (X) \leq n\).