Continuous mappings with an infinite number of topologically critical points (Q4359148)

In a joint paper with the reviewer [Proc. 24th national conference of geometry and topology, Timişoara, Part 2, 15-24 (1996; Zbl 0870.57047)] the author introduces the topologically critical points of a continuous map \(f\) between topological manifolds \(M^n\), \(N^n\). The topological \(\varphi\)-category of the pair \((M,N)\) is defined by \(\varphi_{\text{top}} (M,N)= \min\{|C_{\text{top}} (f)|: f\in C(M,N)\}\), where \(|A|\) denotes the cardinality of the set \(A\). The principal result of this paper is contained in Theorem 3.3: If \(M^n\), \(N^n\) are compact connected topological manifolds such that \(m\geq n\geq 2\) and \(\varphi_{\text{alg}} (\pi_1(M), \pi_1(N))= \infty\), then \(\varphi_{\text{top}} (M,N)= \infty\), where the algebraic \(\varphi\)-category of the pair of groups \((G,H)\) is defined by \(\varphi_{\text{alg}} (G,H)= \min\{[H:\text{Im } f]: f\in\Hom (G,H)\}\). Some interesting applications of the main result are given in the last section.