Fixity and free group actions on products of spheres (Q1884667)

A characterization of the finite groups which can act freely on the sphere is known [\textit{I. Madsen, C. B. Thomas} and \textit{C. T. C. Wall}, Topology 15, 375--382 (1976; Zbl 0348.57019)]. The authors of the paper under review consider a more complex problem: that of free group actions on the product of spheres. So far, the question which finite groups can act freely on a product of two spheres is still open. If a group \(G\) acts on \(U(n)/U(k)\), the fixity of the action is the smallest integer \(f\) such that the induced action of \(G\) on \(U(n)/U(n-f-1)\) is free. The authors use the natural actions on \(U(n)/U(k)\) to construct free actions on the product of spheres. The following results are obtained. Theorem 1. A subgroup \(G \subset U(n)\) of fixity one acts freely and smoothly on \(S^{2n-1} \times S^{4n-5}\). In particular, any finite subgroup of \(SU(3)\) acts freely and smoothly on \(S^5 \times S^7\). This implies that \(A_5\), \(SL_3({\mathbb F}_2)\) and the triple cover \(3A_6\) all act freely and smoothly on \(S^5 \times S^7\). Theorem 2. Let \(p>3\) be a prime. Then a \(p\)-group \(P\) acts freely and on \(S^m \times S^n\) for some \(m, n > 0\) if and only if \(P\) does not contain \({\mathbb{Z}}/p \times {\mathbb{Z}} \times {\mathbb{Z}}/p\) as a subgroup. Theorem 3. If \(G \subset U(n)\) is of fixity equal to two, then \(G\) acts freely on a finite complex \(X \simeq S^{2n-1} \times S^{4n-5} \times S^M\) for some \(M>0\). Theorem 3 can be used to show that \(Sp_4({\mathbb F}_3)\) acts freely on a finite complex \(X \simeq S^7 \times S^{11} \times S^M\) for some \(M>0\). The main result of the paper deals with representations of arbitrary fixity. Theorem 4. Let \(G\) be either a finite subgroup of \(SU(n)\) and k=1, or let \(G\) be a finite subgroup of \(U(n)\) which acts freely on \(U(n)/U(k)\) with \(k>1\). If the order of \(G\) is prime to \((n-1)!\), then \(G\) acts freely, smoothly and homologically trivially on \(S^{2n-1} \times S^{2n-3} \times \dots \times S^{2k+1}\). Using a characterization of low-fixity \(p\)-groups, the authors construct examples of group actions. They prove the following theorem. Theorem 5. Let \(P\) be a finite non-abelian \(p\)-group with cyclic center and with an abelian maximal subgroup. If the rank of \(P\) is \(r<p\) then \(P\) acts freely and homologically trivially on the product of \(r\) spheres, \(S^{2p-1} \times S^{2p-3} \times \dots \times S^{2(p-r)+1}\).