Parametrized topological complexity of collision-free motion planning in the plane (Q2095547)

The parametrized topological complexity \(\mathsf{TC}(p:E\to B)\) (also denoted by \(\mathsf{TC}_B(X)\)) of a fibration \(p: E\to B\) with fiber \(X\) was defined in [\textit{D. C. Cohen} et al., SIAM J. Appl. Algebra Geom. 5, No. 2, 229--249 (2021; Zbl 1473.55010)] as the (reduced) sectional category of the fibration: \[ \Pi: E^I_B \to E\times_B E, \] where \(E^I_B = \{ \alpha: [0,1]\to E: p\circ \alpha \mbox{ is constant} \}\), \(E\times_B E = \{ (x,y)\in E\times E : p(x)=p(y)\}\), and \(\Pi(\alpha)=(\alpha(0), \alpha(1))\). In this paper, the authors consider the parametrized TC of the Fadell-Neuwirth projection map between configuration spaces: \[ p: \mathsf{Conf}(\mathbb{R}^d, m+n) \to \mathsf{Conf}(\mathbb{R}^d, m) \] with fiber \(p^{-1}((x_1,\ldots x_m)) = \mathsf{Conf}(\mathbb{R}^d\setminus \{ x_1,\ldots x_m \},n)\). Roughly speaking, they study the collision-free motion planning problem of \(n\) robots in \(\mathbb{R}^d\) that must avoid \(m\) obstacles whose position is parametrized by \(p\). The authors obtained cohomological and dimensional bounds for parametrized TC in [\textit{D. C. Cohen} et al., SIAM J. Appl. Algebra Geom. 5, No. 2, 229--249 (2021; Zbl 1473.55010)], and applied them in that paper to show that for \(d\) odd the parametrized TC of the Fadell-Neuwirth map equals \(2n+m-1\). In the paper under review, the authors show that the parametrized TC of the Fadell-Neuwirth map equals \(2n+m-2\) when \(d\) is even. The main ingredients in the proof are a lower cohomological bound, a careful analysis of the planar case when \(d=2\), and obstruction theory.