Circle actions on spin manifolds and characteristic numbers (Q1104600)

The paper deals with vanishing theorems for Pontrjagin numbers of a closed spin manifold M admitting a smooth \(S^ 1\) action of odd type. One of these numbers is the signature \(\tau(M)\) of M. This is proved by using the fact that \(\tau (M)=\tau (M^{S^ 1})=\tau (M^{{\mathbb{Z}}_ 2})\) and \(M^{{\mathbb{Z}}_ 2}\) is a submanifold of M with codimension congruent 2 mod 4. If in addition the \(S^ 1\) action is semi free then \(\widehat{Ach}(T)[M],\widehat{Ach}(\lambda^ 2T)[M]\), \(\widehat{Ach}(\lambda^ 3T+T\otimes T)[M]\) and some other characteristic numbers of the form \(\widehat{Ach}(\lambda^ rT+\text{``lower terms''})[M]\) all vanish. Here \(\hat A\) denotes the Hirzebruch \(\hat{\mathcal A}\)-class of the tangent bundle T of M, and ch(E) is the Chern character of the complexification of the real vector bundle E. The paper contains different proofs, one is by using methods of \textit{A. Borel} and \textit{F. Hirzebruch} [Am. J. Math. 80, 458-538 (1958; Zbl 0097.364) and 81, 315-382 (1959; Zbl 0097.364)], another one is by using residues of rational functions. The characteristic numbers introduced in the paper belong to the particular class of elliptic genera, which recently came into prominence by the work of the authors, Ochanine, Witten, Zagier and others [\textit{P. S. Landweber}: Lect. Notes Math. 1326, 69-93 (1988)].