Wecken type problems for self-maps of the Klein bottle (Q2491516)

Given a pair of maps \((f,g): X \to Y\), the coincidence set is Coin\((f,g)= \{x \in X | f(x)=g(x)\}\). If \(X\) and \(Y\) are compact manifolds of the same dimension, the coincidence set is, generically, a finite set. Suppose that \((f_1,g_1)\), \((f_2,g_2)\) are homotopic as pairs of maps, and that \#Coin\((f_1,g_1) =\) \#Coin\((f_2,g_2)=\)MC\([f_1,g_1]\), where MC\([f,g]\) denotes the minimal number of coincidence points occurring among all pairs \((f,g')\) homotopic to \((f,g)\). The authors study the following question. Is it possible to find a pair of homoptopies, \(H\) from \(f_1\) to \(f_2\) and \(G\) from \(g_1\) to \(g_2\), such that \#Coin\((H( \cdot ,t),G( \cdot ,t))=\)MC\([f_1,g_1]\) for all \(t \in [0,1]\)? This question is referred to as the minimal coincidence problem. If, in the above question, in one of the two coordinates the same function appears, and the homotopy between them is constant, the question is referred to as the restricted minimal coincidence problem. If \(X=Y\), both \(g_1\) and \(g_2\) are the identity, and the homotopy \(G\) is constant, this is the fixed point problem. If both \(g_1\) and \(g_2\) are constant and \(G\) remains constant, this is called the root problem. The authors examine the root problem when \(X\) is the Klein bottle \(K\) and \(Y\) is a compact surface with nonpositive Euler characteristic. They establish the Wecken property for coincidences from \(K\) to \(K\). The following case of the restricted minimal problem is obtained. Let \(([f],[g])\) be a pair of homotopy classes of maps \(K \to K\) such that the Nielsen number \(N(f,g)=0\). Then given a map \(g' \in [g]\) there is a countable family of maps \(f_n\), where each \(f_n \in [f]\) and Coin\((f_n,g')= \emptyset\), such that for any two pairs \((f_m,g'), ~(f_n,g')\) with \(m \neq n\) there is no homotopy \(H\) between \(f_m,~f_n\) with the property that \((H(~,t),g')\) is coincidence free for all \(t \in [0,1]\).