Periodic points of latitudinal maps of the \(m\)-dimensional sphere (Q325239)

The authors are looking for a lower bound for the number of periodic points for a latitudinal map of the \(m\)-sphere. More precisely: Let \(S^m:=\{(x_1,\dotsc,x_{m+1})|\;x_1^2+\dotsb+x_{m+1}^2=1\}\) and \(J:=\{(x_3,\dots,x_{m+1})|\;x_3^2+\dotsb+x_{m+1}^2\leq1\}\) and define \(\ell:S^m\to J\) by \(\ell(x_1,\dotsc,x_{m+1})=(x_3,\dotsc,x_{m+1})\). A map \(f:S^m\to S^m\) is called latitudinal if there is a map \(\phi:J\to J\) such that \(\phi\circ\ell =\ell\circ f\). Let then \(f\) be a latitudinal map and call a set \(U\subset J\) regular if (1) \(U\) is open in \(\text{Int}J\), (2) \(\phi(U)=\text{Int}J\), (3) \(\phi(\partial U)\subset\partial J\), (4) \(\deg(f|\ell^{-1}(\{x\})\) is the same for all \(x\in U\) (this is certainly true if \(U\) is connected). Since \(\deg(\phi,U,\cdot)\) is constant on the interior of \(J\) we denote the common value by \(\deg(\phi,U)\). The latitudinal degree of \(U\), \(\deg_{S^1}(U)\), is defined as the common value of the degrees of \(f|\ell^{-1}(\{x\}):S^1\to S^1\). Finally, a connected component \(U\) of \(\phi^{-1}(\text{Int}J)\) contained in \(\text{Int}J\) for which \(\deg(\phi,U)\not=0\) is called a drop. A drop \(U\) is said to be tricky if there is a periodic point of \(\phi\) on \(\partial{U}\) and \(|\deg_{S^1}(U)|=1\). Now denote by \(k\) the total number of drops, by \(k_+\) the number of drops with positive latitudinal degree, and by \(k_-\) the number of drops with negative latitudinal degree and by \(p\) the number of tricky drops, by \(p_+\) the number of tricky drops with latitudinal degree \(+1\), by \(p_-\) the number of tricky drops with latitudinal degree \(-1\) and by \(u\) the sum of the absolute values of the latitudinal degrees over all drops. The main result then states that for a \(C^1\) latitudinal map \(f\) the number of fixed points of \(f^n\) is bounded below by \(k^n-(k_++k_-)^n+u^n+(k_+-k_-)^n-p^n+(p_+-p_-)^n\).