Iterative square roots of functions

An iterative square root of a function $f$ is a function $g$ such that $g(g(\cdot))=f(\cdot)$. We obtain new characterizations for detecting the non-existence of such square roots for self-maps on arbitrary sets. This is used to prove that continuous self-maps with no square roots are dense in the space of all continuous self-maps for various topological spaces. The spaces studied include those that are homeomorphic to the unit cube in ${\mathbb R}^m$ and to the whole of $\mathbb{R}^m$ for every positive integer $m.$ On the other hand, we also prove that every continuous self-map of a space homeomorphic to the unit cube in $\mathbb{R}^m$ with a fixed point on the boundary can be approximated by iterative squares of continuous self-maps.

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