On the topology of nonnegatively curved simply connected 4-manifolds with discrete symmetry (Q1331683)

This paper is partially motivated by a paper of \textit{W.-Y. Hsiang} and \textit{B. Kleiner} [J. Differ. Geom. 29, No. 3, 615-621 (1989; Zbl 0674.53047)], where it is proved that a compact 4-dimensional Riemannian manifold with positive sectional curvature and with an effective isometric \(S^1\)-action is homeomorphic to either \(S^4\), \(\mathbb{R} P^4\) or \(\mathbb{C} P^2\). The homeomorphism classification of compact 4- manifolds that can carry metrics of nonnegative sectional curvatures and with effective isometric \(S^1\)-actions was obtained independently by \textit{B. Kleiner} [Riemannian four-manifolds with nonnegative curvature and continuous symmetry, Ph.D. Thesis, Univ. of California at Berkeley, April 1990]\ and \textit{C. Searle} and the author [Duke Math. J. 74, No. 2, 547-556 (1994; Zbl 0824.53036)]. In this paper, the topology of 4-manifolds that carry smooth metrics of positive or nonnegative sectional curvatures and with effective isometric \(\mathbb{Z}_p\) actions is studied. For example, if \(M\) is a simply connected compact 4-dimensional Riemannian manifold with positive or nonnegative sectional curvature and with a nontrivial isometric \(\mathbb{Z}_p\) action for some prime \(p\), the author gives sufficient conditions that allow to establish lower and upper bounds for the total Betti number \(B(M)= \sum_{i=0}^4 \dim H_i (M)\). The author's main results give further evidence that the five known examples \(S^4\), \(\mathbb{C} P^2\), \(S^2\times S^2\) and \(\pm \mathbb{C} P^2 \# \mathbb{C} P^2\) are probably the only compact simply connected 4-manifolds that carry smooth metrics with positive and nonnegative sectional curvatures, respectively. The last two manifolds are nonhomogeneous and they were constructed by \textit{J. Cheeger} [J. Differ. Geom. 8, 623-628 (1973; Zbl 0281.53040)].