The Borsuk-Ulam property for homotopy classes of maps from the torus to the Klein bottle (Q2236458)

The paper under review considers an interesting generalisation of the classical Borsuk-Ulam theorem by substituting \(\mathbb{S}^n\) and \(\mathbb{R}^n\) by other spaces, and the antipodal map by a free involution. Given topological spaces \(M\) and \(N\) such that \(M\) admits a free involution \(\tau\), the triple \((M,\tau;N)\) is said to have the Borsuk-Ulam property if for every continuous map \(f : M \to N\), there exists \(x \in M\) such that \(f(\tau(x)) = f(x)\). In other words, every continuous map from \(M\) to \(N\) has a coincidence point with respect to the involution \(\tau\) on \(M\). The cases where \(M\) is a compact surface without boundary admitting a free involution and \(N\) is either \(\mathbb{R}^2\) or a compact surface without boundary have been considered in the recent literature. There is a homotopy generalisation of this property. A homotopy class \(\beta \in [M,N]\) is said to have the Borsuk-Ulam property with respect to the involution \(\tau\) on \(M\) if for every representative \(f : M \to N\) of \(\beta\), there exists \(x \in M\) such that \(f(\tau(x)) = f(x)\). The authors determine the homotopy classes of maps from the 2-torus to the Klein bottle that possess the Borsuk-Ulam property with respect to a free involution of the 2-torus for which the orbit space is again the 2-torus. The main results are stated in terms of a certain family of homomorphisms involving the fundamental groups of the surfaces involved. The paper is carefully written and contains detailed computations for the benefit of the readers.