Infinite series in cohomology: attractors and Conley index (Q2305681)

The properties of the cohomological Conley index of isolated invariant continua for for continuous maps \(f: U \subset \mathbb R ^n \to \mathbb R ^n\) are studied by analyzing the topological structure of their unstable manifold. In particular, the first cohomological Conley index is described and several consequences are derived. For example some new computations of fixed point indices in dimensions 2 and 3 are presented. The paper contains a generalisation of results by the first author et al. [Geom. Topol. 17, No. 5, 2977--3026 (2013; Zbl 1291.37021)], where the case of a homomorphism was considered. The approach exploits an attractor-repeller decomposition of the unstable manifold, and then some formal power series are interpreted as endomorphisms of the cohomology group of a pair \((Z,K)\), where \(K\) is a global attractor of a continuous map \(g: Z\to Z\).