{"entities":{"Q1884667":{"pageid":1895409,"ns":120,"title":"Item:Q1884667","lastrevid":72910374,"modified":"2026-04-14T08:42:33Z","type":"item","id":"Q1884667","labels":{"en":{"language":"en","value":"Fixity and free group actions on products of spheres"}},"descriptions":{"en":{"language":"en","value":"scientific article; zbMATH DE number 2113820"}},"aliases":{},"claims":{"P31":[{"mainsnak":{"snaktype":"value","property":"P31","hash":"fd5912e4dab4b881a8eb0eb27e7893fef55176ad","datavalue":{"value":{"entity-type":"item","numeric-id":56887,"id":"Q56887"},"type":"wikibase-entityid"},"datatype":"wikibase-item"},"type":"statement","id":"Q1884667$3537697D-E50B-4AE9-8489-8CCAB0D964E5","rank":"normal"}],"P159":[{"mainsnak":{"snaktype":"value","property":"P159","hash":"85546d9995004aaa02c11129d8114885c07b268f","datavalue":{"value":{"text":"Fixity and free group actions on products of spheres","language":"en"},"type":"monolingualtext"},"datatype":"monolingualtext"},"type":"statement","id":"Q1884667$FC2E0BAB-CDBD-42A0-9523-9D3C5B8CFBF6","rank":"normal"}],"P225":[{"mainsnak":{"snaktype":"value","property":"P225","hash":"af7a6f666acaa44a1363c9655ba5ffcfcc242cad","datavalue":{"value":"1057.57019","type":"string"},"datatype":"external-id"},"type":"statement","id":"Q1884667$0C4C18B8-9F11-435B-9CDE-69A602689BAE","rank":"normal"}],"P16":[{"mainsnak":{"snaktype":"value","property":"P16","hash":"49e45827be318e6bfcc3a3e73d69de8092213298","datavalue":{"value":{"entity-type":"item","numeric-id":180367,"id":"Q180367"},"type":"wikibase-entityid"},"datatype":"wikibase-item"},"type":"statement","id":"Q1884667$3AC3197E-601D-4712-BED0-ADAE7A8EF03B","rank":"normal"},{"mainsnak":{"snaktype":"value","property":"P16","hash":"5a05b1a97f7daefb9d5b5c0b16bea69ef4cdc818","datavalue":{"value":{"entity-type":"item","numeric-id":415467,"id":"Q415467"},"type":"wikibase-entityid"},"datatype":"wikibase-item"},"type":"statement","id":"Q1884667$E8AACE1A-C8B5-4DD8-BFE6-A7C1C33F103A","rank":"normal"},{"mainsnak":{"snaktype":"value","property":"P16","hash":"884bd0a843f00e0604cff5cd1957e35cd8624af7","datavalue":{"value":{"entity-type":"item","numeric-id":161710,"id":"Q161710"},"type":"wikibase-entityid"},"datatype":"wikibase-item"},"type":"statement","id":"Q1884667$E21F527A-C9B3-4AE3-8C51-7D5BB20B2896","rank":"normal"}],"P200":[{"mainsnak":{"snaktype":"value","property":"P200","hash":"5fcb6cd43a0998d068add0035faca6247a2e2036","datavalue":{"value":{"entity-type":"item","numeric-id":185403,"id":"Q185403"},"type":"wikibase-entityid"},"datatype":"wikibase-item"},"type":"statement","id":"Q1884667$E6EF9F48-7464-4865-8C71-35210A034EC2","rank":"normal"}],"P28":[{"mainsnak":{"snaktype":"value","property":"P28","hash":"66f51029b9e38c366fbfa63f3a7b20beee0c294d","datavalue":{"value":{"time":"+2004-11-05T00:00:00Z","timezone":0,"before":0,"after":0,"precision":11,"calendarmodel":"http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1985727"},"type":"time"},"datatype":"time"},"type":"statement","id":"Q1884667$36A6D39A-0171-4620-9EFF-247202B51AAE","rank":"normal"}],"P205":[{"mainsnak":{"snaktype":"value","property":"P205","hash":"a779c8d78150fc37f89d69ffa29cc457e4955e3d","datavalue":{"value":"https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0304078","type":"string"},"datatype":"url"},"type":"statement","id":"Q1884667$4BF9DF52-96BB-401C-8446-C7E58CDB112E","rank":"normal"}],"P1448":[{"mainsnak":{"snaktype":"value","property":"P1448","hash":"29b9a17baf7813d8b68bf64ad853148576429043","datavalue":{"value":"A characterization of the finite groups which can act freely on the sphere is known [\\textit{I. Madsen, C. B. Thomas} and \\textit{C. T. C. Wall}, Topology 15, 375--382 (1976; Zbl 0348.57019)]. The authors of the paper under review consider a more complex problem: that of free group actions on the product of spheres. So far, the question which finite groups can act freely on a product of two spheres is still open. If a group \\(G\\) acts on \\(U(n)/U(k)\\), the fixity of the action is the smallest integer \\(f\\) such that the induced action of \\(G\\) on \\(U(n)/U(n-f-1)\\) is free. The authors use the natural actions on \\(U(n)/U(k)\\) to construct free actions on the product of spheres. The following results are obtained. Theorem 1. A subgroup \\(G \\subset U(n)\\) of fixity one acts freely and smoothly on \\(S^{2n-1} \\times S^{4n-5}\\). In particular, any finite subgroup of \\(SU(3)\\) acts freely and smoothly on \\(S^5 \\times S^7\\). This implies that \\(A_5\\), \\(SL_3({\\mathbb F}_2)\\) and the triple cover \\(3A_6\\) all act freely and smoothly on \\(S^5 \\times S^7\\). Theorem 2. Let \\(p>3\\) be a prime. Then a \\(p\\)-group \\(P\\) acts freely and on \\(S^m \\times S^n\\) for some \\(m, n > 0\\) if and only if \\(P\\) does not contain \\({\\mathbb{Z}}/p \\times {\\mathbb{Z}} \\times {\\mathbb{Z}}/p\\) as a subgroup. Theorem 3. If \\(G \\subset U(n)\\) is of fixity equal to two, then \\(G\\) acts freely on a finite complex \\(X \\simeq S^{2n-1} \\times S^{4n-5} \\times S^M\\) for some \\(M>0\\). Theorem 3 can be used to show that \\(Sp_4({\\mathbb F}_3)\\) acts freely on a finite complex \\(X \\simeq S^7 \\times S^{11} \\times S^M\\) for some \\(M>0\\). The main result of the paper deals with representations of arbitrary fixity. Theorem 4. Let \\(G\\) be either a finite subgroup of \\(SU(n)\\) and k=1, or let \\(G\\) be a finite subgroup of \\(U(n)\\) which acts freely on \\(U(n)/U(k)\\) with \\(k>1\\). If the order of \\(G\\) is prime to \\((n-1)!\\), then \\(G\\) acts freely, smoothly and homologically trivially on \\(S^{2n-1} \\times S^{2n-3} \\times \\dots \\times S^{2k+1}\\). Using a characterization of low-fixity \\(p\\)-groups, the authors construct examples of group actions. They prove the following theorem. Theorem 5. Let \\(P\\) be a finite non-abelian \\(p\\)-group with cyclic center and with an abelian maximal subgroup. If the rank of \\(P\\) is \\(r