Vanishing of all equivariant obstructions and the mapping degree (Q2230928)

The present work is about the existence of equivariant maps between two spaces in a specific setting. The specific setting has to do with some application of classical questions like the envy-free problem for example. Let \(X\) be any Hausdorff compactum with a free action of \(\mathfrak{S}_n\) and \(D_n=\{(x,\dots ,x) \mid \ x\in \mathbb R\}\subset \mathbb R^{n}\) the diagonal. The group \(\mathfrak{S}_n\) acts on \(\mathbb R^{n}\backslash D_{n}\). The work contains two main results. One of them is Theorem 1.1 -- Suppose that \(n\) is not a prime power and not twice a prime power. Then for any Hausdorff compactum \(X\) with a free action of \(\mathfrak{S}_n\) there exists an equivariant map \(X\to \mathbb R^{n}\backslash D_{n}\). It is known that the result above fails when \(n\) is a prime power and for \(n\) twice a prime power is an open question. The other main result, from which the Theorem above follows, is: Theorem 1.4 -- For \(n>1\) consider the boundary \(\partial \Delta^{n-1}\) of a standard simplex with the natural action of the symmetric group \(\mathfrak{S}_n\) permuting the vertices. Let \(d\) be the degree of an \(\mathfrak{S}_n\)-equivariant map \(\partial \Delta^{n-1}\to \partial \Delta^{n-1}\). Then: (a) if \(n=p^k\) for some prime \(p\ne 2\) then \(d\) can attain any value \(d\equiv 1\) (mod \(p\)) and only such values, (b) if \(n=2p^k\) for some prime \(p\) then \(d\) can only attain values \(d\equiv \pm 1\) (mod \(p\)), (c) if \(n\) is odd and \(n\ne p^k\) for all primes \(p\) then \(d\) can attain any values, (d) if \(n\) is even and \(n\ne 2p^k\) for all primes \(p\) then \(d\) can attain 0. Making use of Theorem 1.4 the authors show that the envy-free division problem for \(K\subset \mathbb{R}^d\) and \(n\) players holds. Namely: Theorem 2.2 -- If \(d\geq 2\) and \(n\) is a power of a prime, then the envy-free division problem always has a solution. The paper contains a well organised description of previous results and the context on which their results fit. The geometric approach used to successfully construct such equivariant maps overcomes the difficulties which arise when one tries to use classical equivariant obstruction theory.