From: "B Goldfarb" <goldfarb@csc.albany.edu>
Subject: Re: query abt ANRs
Date: Thu, 18 May 2000 15:15:23 -0400

Hello,
this is a reply to Daniel Matthes' question about ANRs.  The first proof of
the "Borsuk conjecture" that compact ANRs are homotopy equivalent to finite
cell complexes was given by >my< teacher, Jim West.  See Annals of Math. 106
(1977), 1-8.  There are different, modern proofs of stronger results.  Some
of them must be in Steve Ferry's new book on geometric topology.
--Boris Goldfarb
______________________________________________________________
From: N.P.Strickland@sheffield.ac.uk
Date: Thu, 18 May 2000 16:44:13 +0100
Subject: Re: query abt ANRs

> QUESTION: Is there any easy (i.e. other than "Jesus How Confusing"
> Whitehead's) proof of the fact that every Absolute Neighborhood Retract is
> of the homotopy type of some locally finite polyhedron? Even a reference
> for the compact case would be fine!


Here are two books containing useful related material.  I don't think
that either of them answers the question as stated, but they might be
helpful anyway.

@book{frpi:cst,
   author = "Rudolf Fritsch and Renzo A. Piccinini",
   title = "Cellular structures in topology",
   publisher = "Cambridge University Press",
   series = "Cambridge studies in advanced mathematics",
   volume = 19,
   year = 1990  }

@book{do:lat,
   author = "Albrecht Dold",
   address = "New York",
   publisher = "Springer--Verlag",
   title = "Lectures on Algebraic Topology",
   year = {1980}
}

Neil Strickland