New directions in Nielsen-Reidemeister theory (Q975221)

This is an extremely interesting and highly readable account on recent developments in Nielsen-Reidemeister theory centered around the contributions by the author and his various coauthors. Although the author deals with topological fixed point theory the article will certainly be of interest to group theorists as well. Let \(f:X\to X\) be map of a compact space with universal covering \(p:\tilde{X}\to X\), then two liftings \(\tilde{f},\tilde{f}':\tilde{X}\to\tilde{X}\) of \(f\) are said to be equivalent if there is a \(\gamma\) in the group of covering transformations \(\Gamma\cong\pi_1(X)\) such that \(\tilde{f}'\circ\gamma=\gamma\circ\tilde{f}\). Then \(p(\text{Fix}(\tilde{f}))\) is called the fixed point class of \(f\) determined by the lifting class \([\tilde{f}]\). It is called essential if its index is nonzero. The number of lifting classes is the Reidemeister number \(R(f)\) and the number of essential fixed point classes the Nielsen number \(N(f)\). On the other hand, let \(G\) be a countable discrete group and \(\phi:G\to G\) an endomorphism. Then \(x,x'\in G\) are said to be twisted conjugate if \(x'=gx\phi(g^{-1})\) for some \(g\in G\). Denote the twisted conjugacy class of \(x\) by \([x]_\phi\). The number of these conjugacy classes is again called the Reidemeister number \(R(\phi)\) of \(\phi\). A group \(G\) is said to have property \(R_\infty\) if \(R(\phi)=\infty\) for any automorphism of \(G\). In particular, the author deals with the twisted Burnside-Frobenius theorem and the twisted conjugacy problem which asks for an algorithm to determine whether for an arbitrary pair of group words \(U\) and \(V\) in the generators of \(G\) and \(\phi\in\text{Aut}(G)\) the equality \(\phi(X)U=VX\) holds for some \(X\in G\) (not \(W\in G\) as stated in the article). There is a section displaying a list of groups that have the \(R_\infty\) property. Finally, the author proves that for pseudo-Anosov homeomorphisms of closed surfaces the Reidemeister number is infinite.