The fixed-point property for simply connected plane continua
Authors:
Charles L. Hagopian
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, California State University, Sacramento, California 95819-6051
Abstract:
We answer a question of R. Ma'{n}ka by proving that every simply-connected plane continuum has the fixed-point property. It follows that an arcwise-connected plane continuum has the fixed-point property if and only if its fundamental group is trivial. Let be a plane continuum with the property that every simple closed curve in bounds a disk in . Then every map of that sends each arc component into itself has a fixed point. Hence every deformation of has a fixed point. These results are corollaries to the following general theorem. If is a plane continuum, is a decomposition of , and each element of is simply connected, then every map of that sends each element of into itself has a fixed point.