# Is the pre-image of a cellular map a CW complex?

In general, if we have a map between CW-complexes, $f:X\to Y$, and $f$ is cellular, then is is clear that $f^{-1}(Y)$ (the inverse image, $f$ is not invertible in general) is also a CW-complex?

Since it's cellular, $f^{-1}(Y^n)$ must by closed and must contain $X^n$. I'm not sure what else I can say. Something about it intersecting a finite number of cells?

Ultimately, I am trying to use this to prove the following for CW-spectra: Let $f:E\to F$ be a function of spectra (in the strict sense here) and $F'$ be a cofinal subspectrum of $F$. Then there is a cofinal subspectrum $E'$ of $E$ such that $f$ maps $E'$ into $F'$.

My initial intuition was to show that $f^{-1}(F')$ was the desired subspectrum, but I got stymied at the very first step because I don't know much about CW spectra. I guess I could just work with nice spaces or something to simplify this...

Thanks! Jon

-
Perhaps a proof by induction? That's how things always seem to be proved about CW complexes... –  Jon Beardsley Oct 5 '11 at 14:38

So in Adams' terms a (strict) function $f$ of degree $r$ is a sequence of maps $f_n:E_n \to F_{n-r}$ such that the relevant diagram commutes for all $n \in \mathbb{Z}$
So we simply set $E'$ to be the subspectrum of cells of the $E_n$ that are mapped into $E'_{n-r}$. You can then check that this forms a cofinal spectrum.