Obstruction theory and coincidences in positive codimension (Q2505411)

Let \(M\) and \(N\) be compact \(n\)-manifolds and \(f, g: M \to N\) be two maps. The authors study the primary obstruction \(o_n(f,g)\) to deforming \(f\) and \(g\) to be coincidence free on the \(n\)-skeleton of \(M\). They show that \(o_n(f,g)\) is the Poincaré dual to the twisted fundamental class representing the coincidence set \(C(f,g)\). If the fundamental group of \(N\) is finite, the authors use the transfer map to obtain a formula for \(o_n(f,g)\) in terms of the primary obstructions for the liftings to universal covers. They prove, in fact, a stronger result: they show that the finiteness of the Reidemeister coincidence number \(R(f,g)\) implies that the Nielsen number \(N(f,g)\) is equal to \(R(f,g)\), and that the Lefschetz coincidence index map is nonzero. They also give an example of a map between two nilmanifolds for which the Lefschetz coincidence index map is trivial while the primary obstruction to deforming the map to be root free is nontrivial.