Orientable small covers over a product space (Q295932)

The study of small covers was begun in [\textit{M. Davis} and \textit{T. Januszkiewicz}, Duke Math. J. 62, No. 2, 417--451 (1991; Zbl 0733.52006)]. A small cover is a closed \(n\)-manifold \(M^n\) with a locally standard action of \(({\mathbb{Z}}_2)^n\) such that the orbit space of the action is a simple convex polytope \(P^n\). Two small covers \(M_1\) and \(M_2\) over \(P^n\) are called weakly equivariantly homeomorphic if there is an automorphism \(\varphi: ({\mathbb{Z}}_2)^n \to ({\mathbb{Z}}_2)^n\) and a homeomorphism \(f: M_1\to M_2\) satisfying \(f(t\cdot x)=\varphi(t)\cdot f(x)\) for every \(t\in ({\mathbb{Z}}_2)^n\) and \(x\in M_1\). If \(\varphi\) is an identity, then the small covers \(M_1\) and \(M_2\) are equivariantly homeomorphic. If there is a weakly equivariant homeomorphism \(M_1\to M_2\) covering the identity on \(P^n\), then the small covers \(M_1\) and \(M_2\) are said to be Davis-Januszkiewicz equivalent (or D-J equivalent). The number of equivalence classes of small covers has been calculated in recent years over certain polytopes. However, little is known about orientable small covers. Let \(\Delta^n\) and \(P(m)\) denote an \(n\)-simplex and an \(m\)-gon, respectively. The authors consider small covers over product spaces of the form \(\Delta^{n_1}\times \Delta^{n_2}\times P(m)\), where \(n_1\) is odd. They give formulas for calculating the number of D-J equivalence classes and the number of equivariant homeomorphism classes of orientable small covers over such product spaces.