On a conjecture of Gottlieb (Q2464771)

In a paper of 1986, \textit{D. H. Gottlieb} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 293, 381--410 (1986; Zbl 0593.57017)] defined a notion of degree of a continuous map \(f: X\to Y\) between finite CW-complexes \(X\) and \(Y\) by considering the induced map \(f_{*}: H_{*}(X, \mathbb Z)\to H_{*}(Y, \mathbb Z)\) in reduced integral homology. For this notion of degree, Gottlieb conjectured that a map from a finite CW-complex \(X\) to an aspherical CW-complex \(Y\) with non-zero Euler characteristic can have non-trivial degree only if the centralizer of the image of the fundamental group of \(X\) is trivial. In the present paper, the authors give a counterexample to Gottlieb's original conjecture. The problem seems to be that Gottlieb's definition of degree does not take untwisted coefficients in homology groups into account. By introducing a \textit{twisted} degree, the authors can prove Gottlieb's conjecture for this stronger notion of degree. As a corollary they show that all components of non-zero (twisted) degree maps in the space of maps from \(X\) to an aspherical CW-complex \(Y\) with non-zero Euler characteristic are contractible. For the proof of the modified conjecture, the authors use \(L^2\)-Betti numbers and homological algebra over von Neumann algebras.