Sectional category and the fixed point property (Q2236460)

A topological space \(X\) has the fixed point property if for every continuous function \(f:X\to X\) there exists a point \(x\in X\) such that \(f(x)=x\). On the other hand, the sectional number of any continuous function \(p:X\to Y\), denoted by \(sec(p)\), is the smallest number of open sets covering \(Y\) in such a way that every element of the cover admits a continuous local section to \(p\). These two concepts have been widely studied separately, but in this paper the authors explore whether there exist some relations between the cited concepts and they discover a new result. Consider the ordered configuration space of \(k\) distinct points on \(X\), \(F(X,k)=\{(x_1,\dots, x_k)\in X^k:x_i\neq x_j \text{ if } i\neq j\}\), and the projection \(\pi_{k,r}^X:F(X,k)\to F(X,r)\) defined by \(\pi_{k,r}^X(x_1,\dots, x_k)=(x_1,\dots, x_r)\). The authors show that a Hausdorff topological space \(X\) has the fixed point property if and only if \(sec(\pi_{2,1}^X)=2\). Then they analyze many well known results using this theorem as a guide, obtaining interesting examples. For instance, they find an alternative proof of the fact that the two dimensional real projective space has the fixed point property.