Approximate extension property of mappings

The extension problem is to determine the extendability of a mapping defined on a closed subset of a space into a nice space such as a CW complex over the whole space. In this paper, we consider the extension problem when the codomains are general spaces. We take a shape theoretic approach to generalize the extension theory so that the codomains are allowed to be general spaces. We extend the notion of extension type which has been defined for the class of CW complexes and introduce the notion of approximate extension type which is defined for general spaces. We define approximate extension dimension analogously to extension dimension, replacing the class of CW complexes by the class of finitistic separable metrizable spaces. For every metrizable space X, we show the existence of approximate extension dimension of X.