A topological invariant for pairs of maps

In this paper we develop the notion of contact orders for pairs of continuous self-maps (f, g) from ℝⁿ, showing that the set Con(f, g) of all possible contact orders between f and g is a topological invariant (we remark that Con(f, id) = Per(f)). As an interesting application of this concept, we give sufficient conditions for the graphs of two continuous self-maps from ℝ intersect each other. We also determine the ordering of the sets Con(f, 0) and Con(f, h), for h ∈ Hom(ℝ) such that f ∘ h = h ∘ f. For this latter set we obtain a generalization of Sharkovsky’s theorem.