Parametrized Borsuk-Ulam theorems (Q1106506)

The Borsuk-Ulam theorem may be thought of as follows. Let f:S \(n\to {\mathbb{R}}^ n \)be an odd map (i.e. \(f(-x)=-f(x)).\) Then \(f^{-1}(0)\) is not empty. The author studies the parameterized version. If E and E' are vector-bundles over the same B and f:SE\(\to E'\) is an odd map, then \(Z=f^{-1}\) (zero section) is not empty and has a certain dimension. The author defines the Whitney polynomial \(W(E,t)=\Sigma (w_ iE)t^{m-i}\) where t is an inderminant and \(w_ iE\in H\) \(i(B;{\mathbb{Z}}_ 2)\) are the \(i^{th}\) Stiefel-Whitney classes. Then the main result is that for a certain class of polynomials q(t)\(\in H\) x(B)[t], the Whitney polynomial W(E,t) divides q(t)W(E',t). A great many results follows from this such as if the dimension of E is greater than the dimension of E', then the dimension of Z is greater than the dimension of B plus the difference of the dimension of E and E'. These results are generalized to sphere bundles and free or arbitrary group actions.