Semicontinuity of compact group actions on compact differentiable manifolds (Q1820474)

This paper shows a geometrically natural theorem in a natural way, i.e., a geometric object depends on the metric structure of the object in an uppersemicontinuous way. Roughly, it is proved that small deformations of the metric structures on a compact manifold will diminish, or at least not increase, the amount of symmetry (i.e., the isometry group). The author also generalizes this theorem to prove that, in the group of diffeomorphisms on M, Diff(M), every compact Lie subgroup sufficiently close to a given compact Lie subgroup is isomorphic to a subgroup of the given one. This generalizes a theorem of \textit{D. Montgomery} and \textit{L. Zippin} [Topological transformation groups (1955; Zbl 0068.019), p. 216]. There followed related results. Firstly, the result by \textit{R. S. Palais} [Bull. Am. Math. Soc. 67, 362-364 (1961; Zbl 0102.381)], and in the same vein, but more naturally, by \textit{K. Grove} and \textit{H. Karcher} [Math. Z. 132, 11-20 (1973; Zbl 0245.57016)]; more generally, but less naturally, by \textit{D. G. Ebin} [Global Analysis, Proc. Symp. Pure Math. 15, 11-40 (1970; Zbl 0205.537)]; also in several complex variables, by \textit{R. E. Greene} and \textit{S. G. Krantz} [Math. Z. 190, 455-467 (1985; Zbl 0584.58014)].