Fixed point theory of parametrized equivariant maps (Q1210803)

The study of the fixed point theory of a family of maps \(\{f_ b\}_{b\in B}\), where B is a given space, was started by A. Dold in 1974. Essentially, all this material has been published only in research papers. In general to develop fixed point theory one must define local and global indices for some ``nice'' (but not too restrictive) category of maps and derive formulae involving these concepts. This book develops the fixed point theory of G-maps over B. The first chapter presents the basic definitions and results of equivariant theory that will be used in the latter chapters. The author even gives a proof of a version of the ``Equivariant Transversality Theorem'', which gives the reader a good example of how to prove equivariant results. The second chapter treats, in a quite systematic way, the category of spaces and functions where the indices are defined. The objects, denoted by \(G\)-ENR\({}_ B's\), where ``ENR'' stands for ``Euclidean Neighborhood Retract'', are G-maps p: \(E\to B\), where E can be G-embedded in \(B\times M\), with M a real G-module, as a G-retract of an open set of \(B\times M\). The author gives an intrinsic characterization of these objects which is new even for the non-equivariant case. In order to do so he uses an equivariant version of the ``Beginning Covering Homotopy Property'' (also known as Dold's fibration). Chapter III introduces the equivariant cohomological fixed point index. This chapter has a great amount of material that was already spread throughout the literature either in the non-equivariant case or in the case when B is a point. The author gives the general properties of the fixed-point indices and for the case of Equivariant Stable Cohomotopy Theory he identifies \(\Pi\) \(0_ G(B)\) with the equivariant fixed point ring, which is defined geometrically. Also, a formula relating the \(h_ G\)-indices of a map f and the maps \(f^{(H)}\), \(f^{(\underline H)}\), where H runs over the set orbit types around Fix(f), is proved. Several applications of this formula are presented, some of them involving the Euler-Poincaré characteristic, divisibility of the indices when G is finite, etc.... The author also gets some results where the cohomology theory used is the Equivariant K-theory. The book is not self-contained and its reading is not easy. Chapter II is a bit technical and Chapter III requires some background in Topology, since it shows in a beautiful way several links between the fixed-point theory and other topics in Algebraic Topology. Nevertheless the presentation is well organized and the author is careful in giving the details when the situation is not quite analogous to an already known one. Summing up, I believe that the appearance of this book will be important for the development of this field.