Fixed point indices and manifolds with collars (Q2491512)

Let \(M\) be a compact topological manifold and let \(M'\) be the manifold obtained from \(M\) by attaching a collar \(\partial M \times [0,1]\) to \(M\). Let \(f: M \to M'\) be a map. Let \(r\) be a retraction of the collar \(\partial M \times [0,1]\) onto \(\partial M\) and let \(\partial _{-}M\) be the open subset of \(\partial M\) containing all the points \(x \in \partial M\) mapped outside of \(M\) under \(f\). The authors show that if \(f\) has no fixed points on the boundary of \(M\) then \[ I(f) + I(r \circ f| \partial_{-}) = L(r \circ f), \] where \(I\) is the fixed point index and \(L\) is the Lefschetz number; this is a fixed point version of the Morse formula for the index of a vector field. In particular, if \(r \circ f\) is homotopic to the identity map, then \[ I(f) + I(r \circ f| \partial_{-}) = \chi (M), \] a formula obtained earlier by A. Dold.