The cohomological index of free \(\mathbb{Z}/p\)-actions is not additive with respect to join (Q1998815)

Let \(p\) be an odd prime, \(\widetilde X\) a free \(\mathbb Z_p\) CW-complex, \(X\) its orbit space, and \(f:X \to B\mathbb Z_p\) the classifying map of the covering \(\widetilde X \to X\). The cohomological index of the free action on \(\widetilde X\) is the least possible degree of a non-zero class in the kernel of \(f^*: H^*(B\mathbb Z_p, \mathbb F_p) \to H^*(X, \mathbb F_p)\). With the action understood, it is denoted by \(\mathrm{ind}\, (X)\). Suppose \(\widetilde X\) and \(\widetilde Y\) are two free \(\mathbb Z_p\) CW-complexes. It is natural to consider the diagonal action on the joint \(\widetilde X * \widetilde Y\), and one writes \(\widetilde X *_p \widetilde Y\) for the orbit space. In [\textit{G. Granja} et al., ``Givental's non-linear Maslov index on lens spaces'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1704.05827}, to appear in Int. Math. Res. Not., Proposition 3.9] it was shown that \[ \mathrm{ind}\,(X *_p Y) = \mathrm{ind}\, (X) + \mathrm{ind}\, (Y) \] if either \(\mathrm{ind}\, (X)\) or \(\mathrm{ind}\, (Y)\) is even. If both indices are odd, then \[ \mathrm{ind}\, (X) + \mathrm{ind}\, (Y) - 1 \le \mathrm{ind}\,(X *_p Y) \le \mathrm{ind}\, (X) + \mathrm{ind}\, (Y) + 1. \] The purpose of the note is to show that the inequalities are sharp. For any pair of odd indices, not both equal to \(1\), the authors construct examples realizing the upper and lower bound.