The Wecken problem for coincidences of boundary preserving surface maps (Q6044514)

The goal of the work is to explore the non-Wecken property in the context of coincidence of relative maps. An interesting case is when \(X\) is a surface with non-empty boundary and the maps are relative maps \(f,g:(X, \partial X)\to (X, \partial X)\). The main result which is used to study the problem is an extension to the relative case of a result of \textit{R. B. S. Brooks} [Pac. J. Math. 40, 45--52 (1972; Zbl 0235.55006)] for the absolute case. Namely: \textbf{Theorem 2.1}. Let \(X\) be a compact connected surface with non-empty boundary \(\partial X\). Let \(f, g : (X, \partial X) \to (X, \partial X)\) be boundary preserving maps and suppose that \(g\) is a homeomorphism. Then there is a boundary preserving map \(f_0\) homotopic to \(f\) such that \(\#\mathrm{Coin}(f_0, g) = \mu([f], [g])\). Here \( \mu([f], [g])\) stands for the minimal number of coincidences among all pairs \((f', g')\) as \(f'\), \(g'\) run in the homotopy class \([f]\), \([g]\), respectively. As an application of Theorem 2.1 above, making use of results of Nielsen fixed point theory of surface maps for the absolute case, the author shows for the relative case the following: \textbf{Proposition 3.2}. Let \(F\) be a surface with non-empty boundary \(\partial F\) and negative Euler characteristic. Then there is a sequence of maps \(f_n\) such that \((\mu([f_n], [g]) - N_{\mathrm{rel}}(f_n, g)) \to \infty\) as \(n \to \infty\). Here \(N_{rel}(f, g)\) stands for the relative Nielsen number of the pair \((f,g)\). The two cases of \(F\) not covered by the proposition are pointed out as interesting questions.