Manifolds with the fixed point property and their squares (Q729839)

The authors study the following question: Is there a closed manifold with the fixed point property such that its square fails to have the fixed point property? For a topological space \(X\) denote by \(X(2):=(X\times X)/\mathbb{Z}_2\) the symmetric square of \(X\). Let then \(M:=\mathbb{R}P^4\#\mathbb{R}P^4\#\mathbb{R}P^4\) where \(\#\) denotes the connected sum. By looking carefully at the cohomology ring of \(M\) the authors show that \(M\) has the fixed point property (since \(\chi(M)=-1\)) and that there is a fixed point free self-map of \(M(2)\).