Free cyclic group actions on highly-connected \(2n\)-manifolds (Q2126282)

The authors study orientation preserving free \(\mathbb Z_m\) actions on \((n-1)\)-connected closed smooth manifolds of dimension \(2n\). If \(n \not\equiv 1 \pmod 8\), or \(15\), \(31\), and \(63\), then the manifolds are of the form \(\# g(S^n \times S^n) \# \Sigma\), where \(\Sigma\) is a homotopy \(2n\)-sphere. Theorem. If \(\mathbb Z_m\) acts freely on \(\# g(S^n \times S^n) \# \Sigma\), then \(m \vert g + (-1)^n\). If \(m \vert g + (-1)^n\), then \(\mathbb Z_m\) acts freely on \(\# g(S^2 \times S^2)\). Theorem. Assume \(m \vert g+1\). Then, up to topological conjugation, there is a unique orientation preserving smooth free \(\mathbb Z_m\) action on \(\# g(S^3 \times S^3)\). Assume that \(m \vert g-1\). Depending on whether \(m\) is odd or even, there are, up to smooth conjugation, exactly one or two free smooth \(\mathbb Z_m\) actions on \(\# g(S^3 \times S^3)\). For \(n \ge 4\) the authors obtain a classification of free \(\mathbb Z_m\) actions on \(\# g(S^n \times S^n) \# \Sigma\) if the prime factors of \(m\) are large compared to \(n\). Many of the results are obtained by applying surgery techniques to the quotient spaces.