A relative generalized Lefschetz number (Q1319416)

For a map \(f:X \to X\) of a finite polyhedron, the generalized Lefschetz number is a trace-like quality that contains the information in both the classical Lefschetz number of \(f\) and also the Nielsen number \(N(f)\), a lower bound for the number of fixed points of all maps homotopic to \(f\). The Nielsen number is difficult to compute and being able to obtain it using the trace, as in the case of the Lefschetz number, may aid in its calculation. For \(A\) a subpolyhedron and \(f:(X,A) \to (X,A)\) a map of pairs, \textit{H. Schirmer} [Pac. J. Math. 122, 459-473 (1986; Zbl 0553.55001)] defined a relative Nielsen number \(N(f;X,A)\) that is a lower bound for the number of fixed points, of all maps of pairs homotopic, as such, to \(f\). The relative Nielsen number depends in part on \(N(f)\) and \(N(f_ A)\), where \(f_ A\) denotes the restriction of \(f\) to \(A\), so it is, in general, even more difficult to compute than \(N(f)\). Consequently, the authors have developed a relative version of the generalized Lefschetz number that bears the same relationship to \(N(f;X,A)\) that the usual generalized Lefschetz number has to \(N(f)\). The relative generalized Lefschetz number depends on the generalized Lefschetz numbers of \(f\) and \(f_ A\), but there is more to it, as one would expect. The authors show that it satisfies properties analogous to those of the generalized Lefschetz number. They use the relative generalized Lefschetz number to investigate the relationship between the relative Nielsen number and the fixed point theory of fiber-preserving map of fiber spaces. They present several explicit calculations of the relative generalized Lefschetz number, and consequently of the relative Nielsen number. As one of these, the authors make effective use of the Fox calculus to extend an example of \textit{E. Fadell} and \textit{S. Husseini} [Contemp. Math. 21, 59-98 (1983; Zbl 0563.55001)] to the relative setting.