A Van Kampen type theorem for coincidences (Q1962091)

The Nielsen coincidence theory is well understood for a pair of maps \((f, g):M^n\to N^n\) where \(M\) and \(N\) are compact manifolds of the same dimension \(n\) greater than two. The authors consider coincidence theory of a pair \((f, g):K\to N^n\), where the complex \(K\) is the union of two compact \(n\)-dimensional manifolds \(K_1\) and \(K_2\). They define a number \(N(f, g : K_1, K_2)\) which is a homotopy invariant with respect to maps. This number is certainly a lower bound for the number of coincidence points, and they prove a minimizing theorem with respect to this number. Finally, they consider the case where the target is a Jiang space and they obtain a nicer description of \(N(f, g : K_1, K_2)\) in terms of the Nielsen coincidence numbers of the maps restricted to the subspaces \(K_1\) and \(K_2\).