2-dimensional polyhedra with infinitely many left neighbors (Q409710)

This work deals with what are called ``left neighbors'' of a finite polyhedron \(P\). Let \(\mathcal{C}\) be either the Homotopy or Shape Category and use \(\leq\) to denote a domination in \(\mathcal{C}\). Let \(X\), \(Y\in\mathrm{Ob }\mathcal{C}\). One says that \(X\) is a left neighbor of \(Y\) if \(X<Y\) (meaning \(X\leq Y\) but \(Y\leq X\) is false) and for every \(Z\in\mathcal{C}\) with \(X\leq Z\leq Y\), either \(X=Z\) or \(Z=Y\). A conjecture of K. Borsuk suggests that in the shape category it is true that every FANR has only a finite number of left neighbors. In [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 129, No. 1, 303--309 (2001; Zbl 0958.55012)], the author gave a negative answer to this, showing that there exists even a \(3\)-dimensional polyhedron with an infinite set of left neighbors which are also polyhedra. This works also for the homotopy category. The main result of the paper, Theorem 3, shows that the dimension of such a polyhedron can be reduced to \(2\). (It is pointed out that \(2\) is minimal for such a polyhedron.)