Equivariant homotopic distance

Abstract: In this paper, we introduce and investigate the equivariant homotopic distance between G-maps, an equivariant homotopy invariant that extends the notion of homotopic distance to the setting of spaces equipped with a continuous action of a topological group. This new invariant provides a unifying framework that generalizes both the equivariant Lusternik-Schnirelmann category and the equivariant topological complexity. We establish fundamental properties of the equivariant homotopic distance, including a triangle inequality, cohomological lower bounds, homotopy dimension-connectivity upper bound, and behavior under composition and product of maps. We further establish several sufficient conditions for Hopf G-spaces to admit a division G-map and prove that their G-equivariant topological complexity equals their equivariant Lusternik-Schnirelmann category, thus extending Lupton and Scherer's theorem to the equivariant setting. In addition, we provide sharp estimates for the equivariant topological complexity of Hopf G-spheres. Moreover, we estimate the equivariant homotopic distance between fibre-preserving, equivariant maps of G-fibrations in terms of the equivariant homotopic distance between the corresponding G-maps on the fibres and the equivariant Lusternik-Schnirelmann category of the base space.