On finite simple groups acting on integer and mod 2 homology 3-spheres (Q2496187)

The main result of this paper is that a finite (nonabelian) simple group \(G\) acting on a \(\mathbb{Z}_2\)-homology \(3\)-sphere must be a linear fractional group \(\text{PSL}(2,q)\) for an odd prime power \(q\), and moreover if the manifold is a \(\mathbb{Z}\)-homology \(3\)-sphere, then \(q=5\). This demarcates a result of \textit{D. Cooper} and \textit{D. D. Long} [Topology Appl. 101, No. 2, 143--148 (2000; Zbl 0943.57014)], which shows that any finite group acts freely on some \(\mathbb{Q}\)-homology \(3\)-sphere. In a previous paper [Math. Z. 248, No. 4, 675--693 (2004; Zbl 1063.57017)], the authors of the paper under review obtained information about orientation-preserving actions of finite groups on \(\mathbb{Z}\)-homology \(3\)-spheres and \(\mathbb{Z}/2\)-homology \(3\)-spheres. The main result can be derived from that work, but the previous approach relied heavily on the Gorenstein-Harada classification of finite simple groups of sectional \(4\)-rank at most \(4\), while the current proof is more conceptual and avoids long lists of finite simple groups. It proceeds by showing that the \(2\)-Sylow subgroup of \(G\) is dihedral, then applying a result of Gorenstein-Walter that a simple group with dihedral \(2\)-Sylow must be linear fractional with odd \(q\) or the alternating group \(\mathbb{A}_7\), and the latter group is eliminated by a special argument. As for the realization problem, the authors have constructed enough specific actions of \(\text{PSL}(2,q)\) on \(\mathbb{Z}_2\)-homology \(3\)-spheres for small values of \(q\) to give the impression that all the groups \(\text{PSL}(2,q)\) do act, but have no general method for producing such actions. For even \(q\), the groups \(\text{PSL}(2,2^n)\) with \(n>1\) act linearly on the sphere \(S^{2^n-2}\), and the authors prove that this is the minimal dimension of any \(\mathbb{Z}_2\)-homology sphere on which they act. The same method applied to odd \(q=p^n\) yields a lower bound for the dimension of a \(\mathbb{Z}_p\)-homology sphere admitting an action of \(\text{PSL}(2,p^n)\), but except when \(p=3\) and \(n\) is odd, it does not coincide with the minimal dimension of a linear action.