Universal nowhere dense subsets of locally compact manifolds

Abstract

In each manifold $M$ modeled on a finite or infinite dimensional cube $[0,1]^n$ we construct a closed nowhere dense subset $S\subset M$ (called a spongy set) which is a universal nowhere dense set in $M$ in the sense that for each nowhere dense subset $A\subset M$ there is a homeomorphism $h:M\to M$ such that $h(A)\subset S$. The key tool in the construction of spongy sets is a theorem on topological equivalence of certain decompositions of manifolds. A special case of this theorem says that two vanishing cellular strongly shrinkable decompositions $\mathcal A,\mathcal B$ of a Hilbert cube manifold $M$ are topologically equivalent if any two non-singleton elements $A\in\mathcal A$ and $B\in\mathcal B$ of these decompositions are ambiently homeomorphic.