Homotopy minimal periods for nilmanifold maps (Q1601774)

Let \(f:X \to X\) be a map. We say that \(m\) is a homotopy minimal period of \(f\) if \(m\) is a minimal period for every map \(g\) homotopic to \(f\). Let \(\text{HPer}(f)\) be the set homotopy minimal periods of \(f\). \textit{B. Jiang} and \textit{J. Llibre} [Discrete Contin. Dyn. Sys. 4, No.~2, 301--320 (1998; Zbl 0965.37019)] gave a complete description of the sets of homotopy minimal periods for maps of an \(r\)-torus. The authors of the paper under review extend these results to maps of compact nilmanifolds i.e., homogeneous spaces of nilpotent Lie groups. Using a previous result of \textit{E. Fadell} and \textit{S. Husseini} [Nonlinear functional analysis and its applications, Proc. NATO Adv. Study Inst., Maratea/Italy 1985, NATO ASI Ser., Ser. C 173, 47--53 (1986; Zbl 0596.58035)], the authors show that \(f\) determines an integral matrix \(A\) such that \(L(f^n)=\det(I-A^n)\). Let \(T_A = \{n \in {\mathbb{N}}\mid \det(I-A^n) \neq 0\}\); this set is called the set of algebraic periods of \(f\). The main result of the paper is that for any map of a compact nilmanifold \(X\), one of the following conditions holds. (i) \(N(f)=0\) (then \(\text{HPer}(f)= \emptyset\)), (ii) \(N(f) \neq 0\) and the sequence \(\{N(f^m)\}\) is bounded (then \(\text{HPer}(f)\) is finite), (iii) \(\{N(f^m)\}\) is unbounded (then \(T_A\) is infinite, \(\text{HPer}(f) \subset T_A\), the set \(T_A -\text{HPer}(f)\) is finite and its cardinality depends on the dimension of \(X\)). The authors also give a complete description of homotopy periods of maps of compact 3-manifolds not diffeomorphic to a torus.