The symmetrized topological complexity of the circle (Q2359544)

The author uses an original method, based primarily just on general topology, to determine the reduced symmetrized topological complexity \(TC^{\Sigma}(\mathbb{S}^1)\) of the circle. Indeed, in terms of the usual quotient map \(\rho : I\times I\rightarrow \mathbb{S}^1\times \mathbb{S}^1\) defined by \(\rho (t,t') = (e^{2i\pi t}, e^{2i\pi t'})\), he associates to a symmetric motion planning rule on an open subset \(U\) of \(\mathbb{S}^1\times \mathbb{S}^1\) a continuous integer-valued function \(d: \rho^{-1}(U)\rightarrow \mathbb{Z}\) with some specific properties. He then defines three symmetric motion planning rules whose domains cover the torus \(\mathbb{S}^1\times \mathbb{S}^1\) and also their associated functions. Then, he shows (in \S 3) that \(I\times I\) can't be covered by two open sets \(V\) and \(V'\) equipped respectively with locally constant functions \(d\) and \(d'\) satisfying the same specific properties. This leads him to conclude that \(TC^{\Sigma}(\mathbb{S}^1)=2\).