On nilpotent ideals in the cohomology ring of a finite group. (Q1401009)

If \(G\) is a finite group and \(X\) a \(G\)-CW-complex then the authors define a ring \(O_G(X)\) as the quotient \(I_G(X)/K_G(X)\), where \(I_G(X)\) is the ideal of classes which restrict to zero on every isotropy subgroup of \(X\) and \(K_G(X)\) is the kernel of the map \(H^*_G(pt)\to H^*_G(X)\) and show: Theorem. If \(X\) is a finite dimensional \(G\)-CW-complex then the nilpotency degree of \(O_G(X)\) is less than or equal to \(\dim X+1\). Although a form of this result occurs in [\textit{D. Quillen}, Ann. Math. (2) 94, 549-572 (1971; Zbl 0247.57013)] they provide an elementary proof based on an equivariant version of the classical argument bounding the Lyusternik-Shnirelman category of a space via its cup product length. The majority of this beautiful paper deals with showing how one can derive many conclusions on the structure of the nilpotent elements in the cohomology of a group \(G\) by constructing \(G\)-actions on suitable finite dimensional complexes and using the above Theorem. In particular, they recover the Quillen-Venkov Lemma, the Quillen \(F\)-injectivity theorem and the theorem which states that if \(G\) is an elementary Abelian \(p\)-group and \(X\) is a finite-dimensional \(G\)-complex then the \(G\)-action on \(X\) has a fixed point if and only if the map \(H^*_G(pt)\to H^*_G(X)\) is injective. Using the above theorem they study the essential cohomology conjecture which says that if \(G\) is a finite group which is not elementary Abelian then \(\text{ess}(G)^2=0\), where \(\text{ess}(G)\) is the ideal of classes in \(H^*(G)\) which restrict to zero on every proper subgroup. They show that if the essential cohomology conjecture is not true for a \(p\)-group \(G\), then for any connected \(G\)-graph \(X\) the following is true: \(X\) has a fixed point if and only if the map \(H^*_G(pt)\to H^*_G(X)\) is injective. Moreover, they discuss an obstruction for constructing a fixed point free action of a group on a connected graph with zero ``K-invariant'' and study the class related to this obstruction.