\(g\)-actions with close orbit spaces (Q1697187)

In [Mem. Am. Math. Soc. 36, 72 p. (1960; Zbl 0119.38403)], \textit{R. S. Palais} described the classification of \(G\)-spaces for compact Lie groups \(G\). Up to equivalence, \(G\)-spaces with finitely many orbit-types over a given orbit space are classified by the path-components of a particular function space. The main result of this paper (Theorem 2) establishes that, still assuming the \(G\)-space to have only finitely many orbit-types, and assuming further that the orbit space is compact metrizable and that the embedding of each subset of the orbit space corresponding to a given orbit type is ``tame'', this function space is locally path-connected. In consequence, the \(G\)-spaces are classified by the connected components of the function space. As a consequence, the author shows that when a sequence of invariant subspaces of an ambient \(G\)-space \(X\) is such that the spaces have orbit spaces which are ``close'' in some sense to a fixed orbit space inside \(X/G\) and satisfy this tameness requirement, then the \(G\)-spaces in the tail of the sequence are pairwise equivalent. The paper also contains several interesting examples that clarify how the theory is applied and the necessity of the tameness assumption.