Shy Maps in Topology

Abstract

There is a concept in digital topology of a shy map. We define an analogous concept for topological spaces: We say a function is shy if it is continuous and the inverse image of every path-connected subset of its image is path-connected. Some basic properties of such maps are presented. For example, every shy map onto a semilocally simply connected space induces a surjection of fundamental groups (but a shy map onto a space that is not semilocally simply connected need not do so).