Gottlieb's centralizer conjecture for nonzero-degree maps

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Let (Y,y)(Y,y) be a finite aspherical CW-complex which is not acyclic, and let f ⁣:(X,x)→(Y,y)f\colon (X,x)\to (Y,y) be a continuous map. Define the degree of ff by letting deg⁡(f)\deg(f) be the least integer n∈Nn\in\mathbb{N} for which there exists a group homomorphism

τ ⁣:H∗(Y,Z)→H∗(X,Z)\tau\colon H_*(Y,\mathbb{Z})\to H_*(X,\mathbb{Z})

with f∗∘τ=n⋅id⁡f_*\circ\tau=n\cdot\operatorname{id}. Gottlieb's conjecture. If deg⁡(f)≠0\deg(f)\neq 0 and χ(Y)≠0\chi(Y)\neq 0, then the centralizer of f∗(π1(X,x))f_*(\pi_1(X,x)) in π1(Y,y)\pi_1(Y,y) is trivial. The conjecture concerns restrictions on nonzero-degree maps to finite aspherical complexes; the paper's abstract states that it gives a counterexample to the original conjecture and proves a strengthened version, so the original claim is refuted.

References

Primary source

Thomas Schick and Andreas Thom, “On a conjecture of Daniel H. Gottlieb”, arXiv:math/0702826 (2007).

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