Balanced sets and homotopy invariants of covers

Abstract

In this paper, we study a construction of homotopy invariants of open or closed covers, where the homotopy class is defined relative to a pair $(V,r)$, with $V$ a finite set of points in $\mathbb{R}^d$ and $r$ a point in the interior of their convex hull. We show that the simplicial complex of non-balanced subsets associated with $(V,r)$ has the homotopy type of a sphere, and use this to develop a theory of homotopy invariants of covers relative to balanced sets. A key result is that the homotopy class of a cover depends only, up to an involution, on the balanced-equivalence class of $(V,r)$. As applications, we obtain extension theorems for covers in this setting and derive the KKMS lemma, its analogues, and related combinatorial fixed-point results.