Transfinitely iterated wild sets

In this paper, we study homotopical analogues of the Cantor-Bendixson derivative. For each $n\geq 0$, the "$π_n$-wild set" $\mathbf{w}_n(X)$ of a topological space $X$ is the subspace of $X$ consisting of the points at which there exists a shrinking sequence of essential based maps $S^n\to X$. Since the operator $\mathbf{w}_n$ permits iteration, every given space $X$ yields a descending transfinite sequence of nested subspaces $\{\mathbf{w}_n^κ(X)\}_κ$ that stabilizes at some smallest ordinal $\mathbf{wrk}_n(X)$ called the "$π_n$-wild rank" of $X$. We show that the entire transfinite sequence $\{ho(\mathbf{w}_n^κ(X))\}_κ$ of homotopy types is a homotopy invariant of $X$ and that $\mathbf{wrk}_n(X)$ can be an arbitrary countable ordinal when $X$ is an $n$-dimensional Peano continuum. It remains open if there exists a continuum $X$ with uncountable $π_n$-wild rank. This difficulty motivates the parallel study a basepoint-free version $\mathbf{fwrk}_n(X)$, called the "free $π_n$-wild rank" of $X$. We show that for every continuum $X$, $\mathbf{fwrk}_n(X)$ is always countable and can be any countable ordinal.