70 Years of asymptotic fixed point theory (Q497958)

In asymptotic fixed point theory one tries to establish the existence of fixed points of a map by investigating iterates of the map. The author gives a nice overview over what has been achieved in the past seventy years. He starts by recalling the notion of generalized Lefschetz number and the mod \(p\) theorem which in its simplest form states that for a map \(f\) on a compact ANR and a prime \(p\) we have that \(\Lambda(f^p)\equiv\Lambda(f) \mod p\). The easiest proof for this result was given by \textit{H. O. Peitgen} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 54, 441--444 (1976; Zbl 0316.55006)]. The present author has detected a much older proof by \textit{G. Hirsch} [Bull. Soc. R. Sci. Liège 12, 392--407 (1943; Zbl 0060.41007)]. The author then turns to asymptotic fixed points. Let us mention a prominent example: A fixed point \(x_0\) of a continuous map \(f:X\to X\) is called ejective if there is a neighbourhood \(U\) such that for each \(x\in U\setminus\{x_0\}\) there is an \(m\) with \(f^m(x)\in X\setminus U\). If \(E\) is a Banach space and \(C\subset E\) an infinite-dimensional compact convex set and \(x_0\) an ejective fixed point for \(f:C\to C\) then \(\text{ind}(f,U)=0\) for each isolating neighbourhood of \(x_0\). This implies, in particular, that any continuous map \(f:C\to C\) has a non-ejective fixed point. One main ingredient in the proof is that one may assume that \(C\) is the Hilbert cube and that \(x_0\) is an extreme point. In addition, the author extensively discusses the ``asymptotic conjecture'': Let \(E\) be a normed space, \(A\subset E\) closed and convex and \(f:A\to A\) continuous with a compact iterate. Then \(f\) has a fixed point. Maybe, a recent paper by \textit{R. Cauty} [``Un théorème de Lefschetz-Hopf pour les fonctions à itérées compactes'', J. Reine Angew. Math., to appear (2016; \url{doi:10.1515/crelle-2014-0134})] might give an affirmative solution.