Fixed points of fiber maps of Montgomery-Samelson fiberings over intervals (Q694661)

A Montgomery-Samelson fibering (MS) is a fibering with singularities \(\mathfrak{F}_S\), i.e. an open surjective map \(p: E\to X\) and a subset \(S\subset X\), called \textit{the singular set} such that \( p|p^{-1}(X-S): p^{-1}(X-S)\to X-S\) is a fiber map with fiber \(Y\) and \(p|p^{-1}(S)\to S\) is a homeomorphism. The points of \(S\) are \textit{the singular points}. A fiber map is a fiber preserving map that takes singular points to singular points. An example of an MS fibering is the projection of an \(n\)-sphere \(S^n\) onto one of its diameters, for instance, the diameter joining the North Pole of \(S^n\) to the South Pole. The singular set consists of the two poles of \(S^n\) and the fiber is \(S^{n-1}\). The map may be viewed as the suspension \(\Sigma\) of \(S^{n-1}\). This fibering is denoted by \(\mathfrak{S}^n\). A fiber map \(f: \mathfrak{F}_S \to \mathfrak{F}'_{S'}\) is a map that preserves the fibers and takes singular fibers to singular fibers. A fiber map \(f\) induces a map \(\bar f: (X,S)\to (X',S')\) such that \(p'f=\bar f p\). For a fiber map \(f: \mathfrak{F}_S \to \mathfrak{F}_S\), \(MF(f;\mathfrak{F}_S)\) denotes the minimum number of fixed points among all fiber maps homotopic to \(f\). The author studies maps of MS fiberings \(\mathfrak{F}_S\) where, as in the example of \(\mathfrak{S}^n\), the singular set consists of the two endpoints of the interval. They are suspensions of the constant map \(p_0: Y\to \{0\}\). A formula for \(MF(f;\mathfrak{F}_S)\) in terms of \(MF(f_x)\), for finitely many \(x\in [-1, 1]\) such that \(\bar f(x)=x\), is obtained. In many cases these minimum numbers can be computed by Nielsen fixed point theory. Several examples of maps of singular fiberings are constructed. In particular, an example of an MS fibering is constructed in which the total space and nonsingular fibers are connected and where, for each natural number \(k\) there is a fiber map \(f^{[k]}\) such that the minimum number of fixed points of the fiber maps fiber homotopic to \(f^{[k]}\) is \(k\).