Stable cohomotopy groups of compact spaces (Q4811316)

E. Lima introduced stable shape (many years before terminology `shape' was introduced) under the name Čech S-category. The present author improves the results of Lima about stable shape by using a stable shape category \textbf{ShStab} for compact (not necessarily finite dimensional) Hausdorff spaces. For morphisms he represents a space \(X\) as a limit of compact polyhedra, shifts everything into the homotopy category and stabilizes everything in a last step. In this category he investigates cohomotopy groups of spaces and establishes Whitehead and co-Whitehead theorems. To this end he needs at certain occasions finiteness conditions: Let \(\mathfrak H^* = \{h^n\}\) be a cohomology theory, \(X\) a compact Hausdorff space, then he introduces the {global generalized cohomological dimension of \(X\) with respect to \(\mathfrak H^*\)} as \(\max\{n\mid h^n (X)\neq 0 \}\). \(\mathfrak C^s(X)\) denotes this dimension with respect to the cohomotopy groups. He obtains the following results: (1) (Co-Whitehead-theorem) A morphism \(f \in {\mathbf{ShStab}(X,Y)}\) is an isomorphism iff it induces isomorphisms of cohomotopy groups in dimensions \(\geq 0\). If the generalized cohomological dimension of \(X,\;Y\) is finite, then \(f\) induces isomorphisms of all cohomotopy groups iff it induces isomorphisms of all Čech cohomotopy groups with integer coefficients. (2) \(X\) has the stable shape of a compactum (i.e., of a compact metric space) iff the cohomotopy groups are countable. (3) \(\mathfrak C^s(X) < \infty \;\Longrightarrow \mathfrak C^s(X) = \max\{n \mid H^n(X;\mathbb Z)\neq 0 \}\). (4) If the global cohomological dimension of \(X\) is finite, then the stable cohomotopy groups are countable (finitely generated) iff the integral cohomology groups have this property. (5) If, under the same finiteness condition, the integral cohomology groups of \(X\) are finitely generated, then there exists a finite CW complex \(P\), with the same stable shape as \(\Sigma^k X\) for suitable \(k\geq 0\). (6) Let \(X,\;Y\) be compact Hausdorff spaces and let \(\mathbb W_X, \;\mathbb W_Y\) be CW substitutes of the function spectra \({\mathbb F} (X)= \{\text{Map}(X,S^n)\}\) resp. for \(Y\). There exists an isomorphism \[ \mathcal D : {\mathbf{ShStab}(X,Y)}\longrightarrow \;\prec \mathbb W_Y, \mathbb W_X \succ \] where the latter denotes the abelian group of all natural transformation of the associated cohomology theories. It turns out that for two CW spectra \(\mathbb E, \;\mathbb F\) one has \[ \prec \mathbb E, \; \mathbb F \succ = \underset{\longleftarrow}{\lim} [{\mathbb E}_\alpha, \;\mathbb F] \] where \({\mathbb E}_\alpha\) runs through all finite subspectra of \(\mathbb E\). Here \([\dots, \dots ]\) denotes the morphisms in the Boardman category (on the homotopy level). There are some interesting properties of this assignment \(\mathcal D \) with respect to \(\wedge\)-products and the exchange of \(X\) and \(Y\), which are familiar from Spanier-Whitehead duality, although one cannot expect a full duality on this level of generality because of the already well-known counterexamples. Finally the paper deals with some questions concerning the cohomological dimensions of a space with respect to different cohomology theories.