A new family of finite Oliver groups satisfying the Laitinen Conjecture (Q2215671)

The paper under review centers around a well-known question of \textit{P. A. Smith} [Bull. Am. Math. Soc. 66, 401--415 (1960; Zbl 0096.37501)] concering smooth finite group actions on spheres. Given a smooth action of a finite group \(G\) on a sphere with exactly two fixed points, the question asks whether the tangent spaces at the fixed points have isomorphic \(\mathbb{R}G\)-module structures. The answer depends on the group, and there are positive as well as negative answers. A finite group \(G\) is called an Oliver group if there does not exist a sequence of subgroups \(P \trianglelefteq H \trianglelefteq G\) such that \(P\) and \(G/H\) are of prime power orders and \(H/P\) is cyclic. Further, the Laitinen number \(\lambda(G)\) of a finite group \(G\) is defined as the number of real conjugacy classes of \(G\) containing elements whose order is divisible by at least two distinct primes. Two \(\mathbb{R}G\)-modules \(U\) and \(V\) are called Smith equivalent if \(U \cong T_x(\Sigma)\) and \(V \cong T_y(\Sigma)\) as \(\mathbb{R}G\)-modules for a smooth action of \(G\) on a homotopy sphere \(\Sigma\) such that \(\Sigma^G= \{x,y\}\). Further, a smooth action of \(G\) on a homotopy sphere \(\Sigma\) with \(\Sigma^G=\{x,y\}\) is said to satisfy the Laitinen Condition if \(\Sigma^g\) is connected for any \(g\in G\) of order \(2^k\) for \(k \ge 3\). Laitinen proposed the following conjecture predicting negative answers to Smith's question. Laitinen Conjecture: If \(G\) is an Oliver group with \(\lambda(G) \ge 2\), then there exist non-isomorphic \(\mathbb{R}G\)-modules \(U\) and \(V\) which are Smith equivalent and the action of \(G\) on the homotopy sphere in question satisfies the Laitinen Condition. The conjecture is known to be true in many cases, for instance, for groups of odd order and groups having a cyclic quotient of odd composite order. Using techniques from the representation theory of finite groups, the author give a new infinite family of Oliver groups for which the Laitinen Conjecture holds. The arguments are purely group theoretic in nature.