Fixed-point theories on noncompact manifolds (Q2431369)

This is a rather sketchy treatment of the question as to when a proper map on a noncompact manifold can be properly (or boundedly) homotoped in a \(C^r\)-bounded way to a fixed-point free map. Let \(M\) be a Riemannian manifold such that there is a uniform lower bound on the injectivity radius at all points, and an upper bound on all sectional curvatures and all covariant derivatives of the curvature tensor. The author proves that on \(M\) there is a unit length vector field with bounded derivatives iff the Euler class of \(M\) vanishes in \(H_{uf}^n(M)\) where \(H_{uf}^*\) denotes the cohomology of the complex of differential forms with uniformly bounded norms (when expressed in local coordinates). This yields the following corollary: Let \(V\) be a compact manifold with regular cover \(M\). Then \(M\) has a diffeomorphism \(f\) uniformly close to the identity in the \(C^2\) topology such that there is a \(c>0\) with \(d((x,fx)>c\) for all \(x\) iff either \(\chi(V)=0\) or the covering group is nonamenable.