Equivariant path fields on topological manifolds (Q1029916)

\textit{R. F. Brown} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 118, 180--191 (1965; Zbl 0129.39302)] showed that a compact topological manifold admits a non-singular path field if and only if its Euler characteristic is zero. This paper shows an analogous theorem for topological manifolds with a locally smooth \(G\)-action. Specifically it is shown that if \(G\) is a finite group, \(M\) a compact locally smooth \(G\)-space, then there exists a \(G\)-path field on \(M\) having at most one singular orbit in the closure of each component of \(M_{H}\). Moreover \(M\) admits a non-singular \(G\)-path field if and only if \(|\chi|(M_{H}) = 0\), for all \(H \leq G\). Here \(|\chi|(M_{H}) = \sum |\chi(C)|\) where \(C\) ranges over the components of \(M_{H}\).