The Reidemeister trace of an \(n\)-valued map (Q6113241)

Recently, several works have treated Nielsen theory of \(n\)-valued maps, where well-known concepts from Nielsen fixed-point theory for single-valued maps were introduced/extended to \(n\)-valued maps (multivalued maps where the image of a point \(x\in X\) is a subset with exactly \(n\) points of a given space \(Y\)). Among those concepts for single-valued maps, we have the so-called ``Reidemeister trace'', which now in the present work, is appropriately extended to \(n\)-valued maps. A suitable definition of Reidemeister classes for \(n\)-valued maps, denoted by \(\mathcal{R}(\tilde f_{\#})\) where \(\tilde f\) is a lifting of the given map \(f\), has been given by \textit{R. F. Brown} et al. [Topology Appl. 274, Article ID 107125, 26 p. (2020; Zbl 1437.55003)], which satisfies properties similar to the ones the Reidemeister classes of single-valued maps satisfy. Using this concept, in addition to other ingredients, the article under review introduces the concept of Reidemeister trace for \(n\)-valued maps. The definition of the Reidemeister trace for \(n\)-valued maps is given as follows: Definition 3. Let \(f : X \to D_n(X)\) be an \(n\)-valued map, and let \(f : \tilde X \to F_n(\tilde X, \pi)\)) be a lifting with \(\tilde f= (\tilde f_1,\dots,\tilde f_n )\). Then we define the Reidemeister trace of \(f\) and \(\tilde f\) as: \[ RT(f,\tilde f) =\qquad \sum_{[(\alpha, k)]\in \mathcal{R}(\tilde f_{\#})}ind(f, U_{[(\alpha,k)]})[(\alpha,k)]_{\tilde {f}_{\#}} \in \mathbb{Z}\mathcal{R}(\tilde f_{\#}),\] \noindent where each \(U_{[(\alpha,k)]}\subset X\) is an open set containing \(pFix(\alpha^{-1}\tilde f_{k})\) and no other fixed points of \(f\). Then many properties, which parallel those satisfied by the Reidemeister trace for single valued maps, are proved. Notably, in the context of simplicial complexes it is proved in detail that such object can be obtained as the trace of certain matrices. Some examples with the calculation of the Reidemeister trace for the circle are provided. In Section 4 the author shows the relation between the trace for two different lifts \(\tilde f,\tilde f'\) of \(f\). In Section 5, the last section, the local version of the Reidemeister trace is defined and it is shown that it satisfies the \textit{Homotopy property}, the \textit{Excision property} and the \textit{Additivity property}. Then it is shown: Corollary 25: Any function satisfying the three properties above is the local Reidemeister trace. Finally with respect to a regular finite covering \(q:\bar X \to X\) which corresponds to a normal subgroup \(G\) of \(\pi\), an average formula is shown which relates the trace of the map on \(X\) with the trace of the liftings of \(f\) to the finite covering and the cardinality \([\pi, G]\), the index of the subgroup \(G\) on \(\pi\). The paper provides enough details and the presentation is very well organized.