On the bounded index property for products of aspherical polyhedra (Q2236450)

A compact polyhedron \(X\) is said to have the Bounded Index Property (BIP) (resp. Bounded Index Property for homeomorphisms (BIPH), Bounded Index Property for Homotopy Equivalence (BIPHE)), if there is an integer \(\beta >0\) such that for any map (resp. homeomorphism, homotopy equivalence) \(f:X\to X\) and any fixed point class \(F\) of \(f\) the index \(|\mbox{ind}(f,F)|\leq \beta\). In this work, the authors consider the product of connected compact polyhedra, and give some sufficient conditions for it to have the BIPHE (and hence the BIPH). We recall that a closed \(2\)-dimensional manifold \(M\) with negative sectional curvature is a closed hyperbolic surface, and hyperbolic surfaces have the BIP. Moreover the authors show that the product of finitely many connected closed Riemannian manifolds with negative sectional curvature everywhere but not necessarly with the same dimensions (in particular hyperbolic manifolds) have the BIPHE.