About three conjectures on finite group actions on 3-manifolds (Q2630631)

The question which group can act on a given manifold \(M\) has a long history and is still a very important problem, where we assume here that the group action is faithful, smooth and orientation preserving. In this short article, the author illustrates the following three conjectures on finite groups acting on 3-manifolds. Due to the works by Thurston and Perelman, all finite groups which act on the standard \(3\)-sphere \(S^3\) are conjugate to a finite subgroup in \(\mathrm{SO}(4)\). The first conjecture is that all non-free finite group actions on an integer homology \(3\)-sphere are isomorphic to a subgroup in \(\mathrm{SO}(4)\). If the action is free, there exists a counter example to this conjecture by Milnor. A periodic diffeomorphism on a \(3\)-manifold \(M\) is called a \textit{rotation} if it has a nonempty, connected fixed point set (a simple closed curve) and all of its nontrivial powers have the same fixed point set, and is called \textit{hyperelliptic} if its quotient is homeomorphic to \(S^3\), i.e., the branched covering of a knot in \(S^3\). The second conjecture is stated as follows: a finite group acting on a closed \(3\)-manifold and containing a hyperelliptic rotation is isomorphic to a subgroup of \(\mathrm{SO}(4)\). The final third conjecture is that every linear fractional group \(\mathrm{PSL}_{2}(q)\) can act on a mod \(2\) homology sphere, where \(q(\geq 5)\) is an odd prime power.