Estimating the higher symmetric topological complexity of spheres

Abstract

We study questions of the following type: Can one assign continuously and $\Sigma_m$-equivariantly to any $m$-tuple of distinct points on the sphere $S^n$ a multipath in $S^n$ spanning these points? A \emph{multipath} is a continuous map of the wedge of $m$ segments to the sphere. This question is connected with the \emph{higher symmetric topological complexity} of spheres, introduced and studied by I. Basabe, J. Gonz\'alez, Yu. B. Rudyak, and D. Tamaki. In all cases we can handle, the answer is negative. Our arguments are in the spirit of the definition of the Hopf invariant of a map $f: S^{2n-1} \to S^n$ by means of the mapping cone and the cup product.