Linearity of homotopy representations (Q1802990)

Let \(G\) be a finite group. A finite dimensional \(G\)-CW complex \(X\) is called a homotopy representation of \(G\) if, for any subgroup \(H\) of \(G\), the \(H\) fixed point set \(X^ H\) is homotopy equivalent to a \((\dim X^ H)\) dimensional sphere, possibly empty. It is called finite if \(X\) is \(G\) homotopy equivalent to a finite \(G\)-CW complex, and linear if \(X\) is \(G\) homotopy equivalent to the unit sphere in an orthogonal representation of \(G\). To \(X\) one associates its dimension function \(\text{Dim }X: \varphi(G)\to\mathbb{Z}\), where \(\varphi(G)\) denotes the set of conjugacy classes of subgroups of \(G\), and \(\text{Dim }X([H])=\dim X^ H+1\). The dimension function \(\text{Dim }X\) is said to be linear if there exists an orthogonal representation \(V\) of \(G\) such that \(\text{Dim }X= \text{Dim }S(V)\). Given a homotopy representation \(X\) with linear dimension function \(\underline{n}\) the author defines groups \(LH^ \infty(G;\underline {n})\) and \(LH(G;\underline {n})\) and an invariant \(l(X)\in LH^ \infty(G;\underline {n})\). There are two general results. Theorem 0.1. A homotopy representation \(X\) with linear dimension function \(\underline {n}\) is linear if and only if \(l(X)\) vanishes in \(LH^ \infty(G; \underline {n})\). Theorem 0.2. For an abelian group the following are equivalent. (1) Any homotopy representation (resp., finite homotopy representation) of \(G\) with linear dimension function \(\underline {n}\) is linear. (2) \(LH^ \infty(G;\underline {n})=1\) (resp., \(LH(G;\underline {n})=1\)). The author then provides a list of all abelian groups \(G\) for which \(LH^ \infty(G;\underline {n})=1\) (resp., \(LH(G;\underline {n})=1\)) for all dimension functions. As a corollary, he obtains a list of groups such that any homotopy representation of \(G\) is linear if and only if \(G\) belongs to this list.