The stable free rank of symmetry of products of spheres (Q1034698)

A well known conjecture in the theory of transformation groups states that if \(p\) is a prime and \((\mathbb Z/p)^r\) acts freely on a product of \(k\) spheres, then \(r\leq k\). Various authors have verified special cases of the conjecture. The author shows that the conjecture holds for large values of \(p\). More specifically, suppose that \(X\) is a product of spheres of which \(k_0\) are of odd dimension. Theorem. If \(p > 3 \dim X\) and \((\mathbb Z/p)^r\) acts freely on \(X\), then \(r \leq k_0\). The argument builds on tame homotopy theory for non--simply connected spaces.