Free abelian topological groups and collapsing maps (Q429323)

The author gives a specific description of the free Abelian topological group on a topological space. This admits a universal extension property when the space is a pointed compact metric space. Writing \(A(X)\) for the free Abelian topological group, the main theorem shows that if \((X,Y)\) is a pair of compact metric ANR spaces, the map \(A(X)\to A(X/Y)\) is a locally trivial fibre bundle with fibre \(A(Y)\). This theory enables the author to give an alternate proof of the famous theorem of \textit{A. Dold} and \textit{R. Thom} [Ann. Math. (2) 67, 239--281 (1958; Zbl 0091.37102)].