Selfcoincidences and roots in Nielsen theory (Q926608)

In an earlier work [J. Reine Angew. Math. 598, 211--236 (2006; Zbl 1107.55002)], the author introduced a number of bordism invariants for studying the coincidence set \(\text{Coin}(f,g)\) for two maps \(f,g:M\to N\) between manifolds of possibly different dimensions. These invariants are obstructions to deforming \(f\) and \(g\) to be coincidence free. In this paper, the author focuses on the situation where \(M\) is a sphere. Using the previous work, the author defines two invariants \(\omega^{\sharp}_A\) and \(\widetilde \omega_A\) for every \(A\in \pi_1(N)\). Then the Nielsen numbers \(N^{\sharp}(f,g)\) and \(N(f,g)\) are defined to be the number of elements \(A\in \pi_1(N)\) such that \(\omega^{\sharp}_A(f,g)\neq 0\) and \(\widetilde \omega_A(f,g)\neq 0\), respectively. The main result of the paper is Theorem 1.30: for all maps \(f,g:S^m\to N\), \(N^{\sharp}(f,g)=0\) if and only if \(\omega^{\sharp}_A(f,g)=0\); and \(N(f,g)=0\) if and only if \(\widetilde \omega_A(f,g)=0\). Furthermore, \(N^{\sharp}(f,g)\) and \(N(f,g)\) may assume only the values \(0\) or \(k=|\pi_1(N)|\). In the case \(k=2\) and \(N\) is an even dimensional closed non-orientable manifold with \(\chi(N)\neq 0\), \(1\) is also a possible value.