A topological invariant for pairs of maps (Q2501230)

The authors deal with the following problem: for the two continuous maps \(f,g: \mathbb{R}^m\to \mathbb{R}^m\) given, find sufficient conditions for \(\text{Graph}(f)\cap \text{Graph}(g)\neq\emptyset\), where \(\text{Graph}(f)= \{(x, f(x))\mid x\in\mathbb{R}^m\}\). The authors solve this problem in the one-dimensional case and let the general case as an open problem. To this end, they develop the notion of contact orders for pairs of continuous self-maps \((f,g)\) from \(\mathbb{R}^m\), showing that the set \(\text{Con}(f,g)\) of all possible contact orders between \(f\) and \(g\) is topological invariant.