Compactifications of based-free \(G\)-spaces (Q2400861)

Let \(G\) be a topological group. A topological space \(X\) is called a \(G\)-space, if there exists a continuous action \(\alpha: G\times X \to X\), \((g,x) \mapsto gx\). For a point \(x\) in a \(G\)-space \(X\), the stabilizer is defined to be the subgroup \(G_x=\{g\in G \,| \,gx=x\}\) of \(G\). If \(G_x=G\), then \(x\) is called a \(G\)-fixed point of \(X\). A \(G\)-space \(X\) is called free, if \(G_x =\{e\}\), the unity of \(G\), for every \(x\in X\). If \(X\) contains a unique \(G\)-fixed point \(a\in X\) and \(G_x=\{e\}\) for every \(x\neq a\), then \(X\) is called a base-free \(G\)-space. A continuous map \(f:X \to Y\) of \(G\)-spaces \(X\) and \(Y\) is called an equivariant map, or a \(G\)-map, if \(f(gx) = gf(x)\) for every \(x \in X\) and \(g\in G\). A \(G\)-embedding is a topological embedding which is a \(G\)-map. A paracompact space is called finitistic, if every open cover of it has a refinement of finite order. The main question under investigation is to find out which based-free \(G\)-spaces have a \(G\)-equivariant embeding in a based-free compact \(G\)-space. In this paper \(G\) denotes a compact Lie group. The author proves that every finitistic based-free \(G\)-space has a based-free \(G\)-compactification. It is shown that the maximal \(G\)-compactification \(\beta_G X\) of a \(G\)-space \(X\) is based-free whenever \(X\) is a finitistic based-free \(G\)-space. The maximal \(G\)-compactifications \(\beta_G X\) are characterized in terms of \(G\)-maps from the given based-free \(G\)-space \(X\) to the cone \(\text{Cone}(G)\).