Homotopic distance and generalized motion planning (Q2094552)

This paper contains several interesting applications of the first two authors' earlier paper on homotopic distance [\textit{E. Macías-Virgós} and \textit{D. Mosquera-Lois}, Math. Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc. 172, No. 1, 73--93 (2022; Zbl 1485.55005)]. In that paper the authors introduced the homotopic distance between two maps and showed that the Lusternik-Schnirelmann category, Farber's topological complexity, and the Švarc genus can all be seen as special cases of the homotopic distance between maps. In this paper the authors discuss applications involving Morse-Bott functions, the distance from a submanifold in an analytic manifold, the cut locus, motion planning, and navigation functions. The authors definition of homotopic distance is as follows. Definition 3.1. Let \(f, g:X \rightarrow Y\) be two continuous maps. The \textit{homotopic distance} \(D(f, g)\) between \(f\) and \(g\) is the least integer \(k \geq 0\) such that there exists an open covering \(U_0 \cup \cdots \cup U_k = X\) with the property that the restrictions \(f|_{U_j}\) and \(g|_{U_j}\) are homotopic maps, for all \(j = 0,\ldots ,k\). If there is no such covering, we define \(D(f, g) = \infty\). In their earlier paper the authors proved that the LS category of a space \(X\) is the homotopic distance between the inclusion maps \(i_1,i_2:X \rightarrow X \times X\) given by \(i_1(x) = (x,x_0)\) and \(i_2(x) = (x_0,x)\), where \(x_0 \in X\) is a basepoint. That is, \(D(i_1,i_2) = \mathrm{cat }X\). They also proved that the topological complexity of \(X\) is the homotopic distance between the two projection maps \(p_1,p_2:X \times X \rightarrow X\), i.e. \(TC(X) = D(p_1,p_2)\). In this paper the authors introduce the following definition of the subspace distance between two maps. Definition 3.6. Let \(f,g:X \rightarrow Y\) be two continuous maps, and let \(A \subset X\) be a subspace. The \textit{subspace distance} between the two maps \(f\), \(g\) on \(A\), denoted by \(D_X(A; f, g)\), is defined as the distance between the restrictions of \(f, g\) to \(A\), that is, \[ D_X(A; f, g) := D(f|_A, g|_A). \] The main result in this paper is: Theorem 4.5. Let \(\Phi:M \rightarrow \mathbb{R}\) be a Morse-Bott function in the compact smooth manifold \(M\). Let \(c_1 < \cdots < c_p\) be its critical values, and let \(\Sigma_i = \Phi^{-1}(c_i) \cap \mathrm{Crit }\Phi\) be the set of critical points in the level set \(\Phi = c_i\). If \(f,g:M \rightarrow Y\) are two continuous maps, then \[ D(f,g) + 1 \leq \sum_{i=1}^p \left(D_M(\Sigma_i;f,g) + 1 \right). \] This new result is analogous to a result by Lusternik-Schnirelmann that says \[ \mathrm{cat }M + 1 \leq \sum_{i=1}^p \left(\mathrm{cat}_M \Sigma_i + 1\right), \] for any smooth function \(\Phi:M \rightarrow \mathbb{R}\) and a result by Farber that says \[ TC(M) + 1 \leq \sum_{i=1}^p \left(TC_M(\Sigma_i)+ 1 \right). \] for a Morse-Bott function \(\Phi:M \times M \rightarrow \mathbb{R}\) such that \(\Phi \geq 0\) and \(\Phi(x,y) = 0\) if and only if \(x=y\). With regard to the cut locus on an analytic manifold the authors prove the following result. Theorem 5.8. Let \(M\) be a compact analytic manifold and \(N\) a closed analytic submanifold. Let \(f, g:M \rightarrow Y\) be two continuous maps. Then \[ D(f,g) \leq D_M(N;f,g) + D_M(\mathrm{Cut} N;f,g) + 1. \] Section 6 of the paper discusses motion planning and the Švarc genus of a fibration. The main theorem in Section 6 concerning motion planning and the topological complexity of the work map is: Theorem 6.4. Let \(f:X \rightarrow Y\) be a continuous map. Then, the (normalized) topological complexity of \(f\) equals the distance of the projections composed with the map \(f\). That is, tc\((f) = D(f \circ p_1, f \circ p_2)\). A similar result is proved for the topological complexity of a map defined by \textit{P. Pavešić} [Homology Homotopy Appl. 21, No. 2, 107--130 (2019; Zbl 1426.55004)], and the authors also prove that the weak category of a continuous map \(f:X \rightarrow X\) reduced to a subspace \(A \subset X\) (defined by \textit{K. Yokoi} [Glasg. Math. J. 61, No. 3, 693--704 (2019; Zbl 1423.55002)]) is equal to \[ \lim_{n \rightarrow \infty} D_X(A;f^n,x_0), \] where \(x_0 \in X\).