On retractable sets and the fixed point property

Call a subsetA of an ordered setP retractable tob P iff the map that mapsA tob and leaves all other points fixed is a retraction. We prove fixed point theorems for sets that contain a retractable set and also use this tool to study the fixed point property for products. The results in this paper show that three classical approaches to the fixed point property: irreducible points, cutsets and lexicographic sums can be viewed as special cases of the situation described above.Presented by I. Rival.This research was funded in part by ONR grant nr. N00014-89-J-1824.