A sufficient condition for existence of iterative roots of PM functions without the characteristic endpoints condition

Abstract: For PM functions of height 1, the existence of continuous iterative roots of any order was obtained under the characteristic endpoints condition. This raises an open problem about iterative roots without this condition, called characteristic endpoints problem. This problem is solved almost completely when the number of forts is equal to or less than the order. In this paper, we study the case that the number of forts is greater than the order and give a sufficient condition for existence of continuous iterative roots of order $2$ with height 2, answering the characteristic endpoints problem partially.