Lusternik-Schnirelmann invariants in proper homotopy (Q756764)

Proper homotopy invariants of the Lusternik-Schnirelmann category type are defined for Hausdorff locally compact spaces. As an application, \({\mathbb{R}}^ n\) (n\(\neq 3)\) is characterized as i) the unique open manifold with proper strong category 2, or ii) the unique open manifold with one strong end [\textit{M. L. Mihalik}, Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 277, 307-321 (1983; Zbl 0518.57002)] and proper category 2.