The Lefschetz-Hopf theorem and axioms for the Lefschetz number (Q2388406)

In the category of compact polyhedra and maps, the (global) fixed point index \(I_f\) of a selfmap \(f:X\to X\) coincides with the Lefschetz number \(L(f)\). The axiomatization of \(I_f\) is established using the uniqueness of \(I_f\) satisfying certain properties such as homotopy, additivity, and commutativity. In this paper, the authors give a new proof of the equality \(I_f=L(f)\) by showing that the reduced Lefschetz number \(\widetilde L(f):=L(f)-1\) is the unique integer-valued function satisfying (i) homotopy, (ii) commutativity, (iii) cofibration, and (iv) wedge of circles properties, and the reduced index \(\widetilde I_f:=I_f-1\) satisfies properties (i)--(iv). This approach is motivated by a similar axiomatization of the reduced Euler characteristic \(\widetilde \chi(X):=\chi(X)-1\) due to \textit{C. Watts} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 13, 304--306 (1962; Zbl 0111.35705)] and the fact that \(\widetilde L(\text{id}_X)=\widetilde \chi(X)\). Given any function \(\lambda: \text{Map}(X,X)\to \mathbb Z\), property (iii) asserts that \(\lambda(f)=\lambda(f| _A)+\lambda(\bar f)\) where \(A \to X\to X/A\) is a cofibration where \(A\) is a subpolyhedron of \(X\), \(\bar f\) is the induced map on \(X/A\), and \(f| _A\) is the restriction. Property (iv) asserts that \(\lambda(f)\) can be calculated by \(\lambda(f)=-\sum_j \deg (f_j)\) if \(f\) is a map of a bouquet of circles \(W=\bigvee_j S^1_j\) and \(f_j=p_jfe_j\) where \(e_j:S^1_j \hookrightarrow W\) is the inclusion and \(p_j:W\to S^1_j\) is the projection.