On the homotopy method in the fixed point index theory of multi-valued mappings of compact absolute neighborhood retracts (Q1189685)

This paper presents the details of results announced elsewhere [the author, C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris, Ser. I 307, 489-492 (1988; Zbl 0665.54030)]. Let \(U\) be an open subset of \(X\), a compact ANR. Denote the closed non-empty subsets of \(X\) by \(K(X)\) and consider (multivalued) upper semi-continuous (usc) mappings \(\phi: X\to K(X)\) with no fixed points (\(x\in\phi(x)\)) on \(\partial U\), the boundary of \(U\). Denote by \(A_{\partial U}(X)\) the set of all such maps that can be \(\varepsilon\)- approximated by single-valued maps \(f: X\to X\) (that is, the graph of \(f\) lies in an \(\varepsilon\)-neighborhood of the graph of \(\phi\)) for all \(\varepsilon > 0\), by approximations that are well-behaved in the following sense: Given \(\delta>0\), there exists \(\varepsilon_ 0>0\) such that if \(f,g: X\to X\) are any \(\varepsilon\)-approximations of \(\phi\) for \(0<\varepsilon \leq \varepsilon_ 0\), then \(f\) and \(g\) are homotopic through \(\delta\)-approximations of \(\phi\). Letting \([A_{\partial U}(X)]\) denote the homotopy classes of \(A_{\partial U}(X)\), where the homotopies have no fixed points on \(\partial U\), and \([S_{\partial U}(X)]\) the homotopy classes of single-valued self-maps of \(X\) that have no fixed points on \(\partial U\), under homotopies with the same property, the authors prove that there is a bijection \(F: [A_{\partial U}(X)]\to[S_{\partial U}(X)]\). They then define the fixed point index \(\text{i}(X,\phi,U)\) of \(\phi\in A_{\partial U}(X)\) on \(U\) to be the classical fixed point index \(\text{i}(X,f,U)\) for any \(f\in F[\phi]\). In this way, they obtain a fixed point index for these multivalued maps with all the essential properties, but without making use of the homology theory of multivalued maps. The authors then demonstrate that the set \(A_{\partial U}(X)\) includes many important classes of usc maps with acyclic images. For instance, if for each \(x\), the compact set \(\phi(x)\) has trivial shape or is an \(R_ \delta\)-set (the intersection of a descending sequence of compact contractible sets), then \(\phi\in A_{\partial U}(X)\).