Parametrized topological complexity of sphere bundles (Q6044505)

In the present paper the \textit{sectional category} of a fibration \(p:E\to B\), denoted by \(\mathrm{secat}(p)\), is defined to be the smallest \(k\) such that \(B\) admits a cover by open sets \(U_0,\ldots,U_k\), each of which admits a local continuous section. Note that the authors use the reduced version, i.e., \(\mathrm{secat}(p)=0\) if and only if \(p\) admits a global continuous section. The \textit{height} of a cohomology class \(\alpha\neq 0\), denoted by \(\mathrm{h}(\alpha)\), is the largest integer \(k\) such that its \(k\)-th power is nonzero, \(\alpha^k\neq 0\). Given a fibration \(p:E\to B\), consider the fibration \(\pi^p:E^{I}_B\to E\times_B E, \gamma\mapsto (\gamma(0),\gamma(1))\), where \(E\times_B E=\{(e_1,e_2)\in E\times E:~p(e_1)=p(e_2)\}\) and \(E^{I}_B\) is the space of continuous paths in \(E\) lying in a single fiber of \(p\). The \textit{parametrized topological complexity} of \(p\) is given by \[ \mathrm{TC}[p:E\to B]=\mathrm{secat}(\pi^p). \] This numerical invariant was introduced in [\textit{D. C. Cohen} et al., SIAM J. Appl. Algebra Geom. 5, No. 2, 229--249 (2021; Zbl 1473.55010)] Let \(\xi:E\to B\) be an oriented rank \(q\geq 2\) vector bundle equipped with fibrewise scalar product. Let \(S(\xi):S(E)\to B\) denote the unit sphere bundle and \(\xi':E'\to S(E), (x,y)\to x\), where \(E'\subset S(E)\times_B S(E)\) is the space of pairs of mutually orthogonal unit vectors \((x,y)\in S(E)\times_B S(E)\), \(x\perp y\). Note that \(\xi'\) is an oriented locally trivial fibration with fibre sphere of dimension \(q-2\). Consider its Euler class \(e(\xi')\in H^{q-1}(S(E))\). The authors estimate the parametrized topological complexity \(\mathrm{TC}[S(\xi):S(E)\to B]\). In particular, they show the following statement. \textbf{Theorem 5.2} One has the estimates \[ \mathrm{h}(e(\xi'))+1\leq\mathrm{TC}[S(\xi):S(E)\to B]\leq\mathrm{secat}(\xi')+1. \] Moreover, if \(B\) is a CW-complex satisfying \(\dim B\leq (q-1)\cdot\mathrm{h}(e(\xi'))\) then \[ \mathrm{TC}[S(\xi):S(E)\to B]=\mathrm{h}(e(\xi'))+1=\mathrm{secat}(\xi')+1. \]