Chain functors with isomorphic homology (Q5933379)

A chain functor is a functor from a category of topological spaces to the category of chain complexes. These were introduced by the author in an earlier paper [Ann. Mat. Pura Appl. (4) 155, 143-191 (1989; Zbl 0695.55005)] where it was shown that any generalized homology theory \(h_*(\cdot)\) can be expressed in terms of a chain functor \(K_*(\cdot)\) as \(h_*(X) \cong H_*(K_*(X))\). The main result of the paper under review concerns the question of when two chain functors yield isomorphic homology theories. It is shown that if \(A_*(\cdot)\) and \(B_*(\cdot)\) are two such chain functors then there need not be a map of chain functors realizing the isomorphism but there are maps from each of these to a third chain functor, \(C_*(\cdot)\) such that the isomorphism is the composition of maps induced in homology by these. In addition to a proof of this result the paper contains two expository sections on the definition of and motivation for chain functors.