On the Nielsen root theory of n-valued maps

Let $$\phi :X \multimap Y$$ ϕ : X ⊸ Y be an n-valued map of connected finite polyhedra and let $$a \in Y$$ a ∈ Y . Then, $$x \in X$$ x ∈ X is a root of $$\phi $$ ϕ at a if $$a \in \phi (x)$$ a ∈ ϕ ( x ) . The Nielsen root number $$N(\phi : a)$$ N ( ϕ : a ) is a lower bound for the number of roots at a of any n-valued map homotopic to $$\phi $$ ϕ . We prove that if X and Y are compact, connected triangulated manifolds without boundary, of the same dimension, then given $$\epsilon > 0$$ ϵ > 0 , there is an n-valued map $$\psi $$ ψ homotopic to $$\phi $$ ϕ within Hausdorff distance $$\epsilon $$ ϵ of $$\phi $$ ϕ such that $$\psi $$ ψ has finitely many roots at a. We conjecture that if X and Y are q-manifolds without boundary, $$q \ne 2$$ q ≠ 2 , then there is an n-valued map homotopic to $$\phi $$ ϕ that has $$N(\phi : a)$$ N ( ϕ : a ) roots at a. We verify the conjecture when $$X = Y$$ X = Y is a Lie group by employing a fixed point result of Schirmer. As an application, we calculate the Nielsen root numbers of linear n-valued maps of tori.