Critical points of invariant functions on closed orientable surfaces (Q2343198)

In this paper, the authors study orientation-preserving actions of finite groups on closed orientable surfaces. The first part of their work consists of a description of the gradient field of an equivariant \(C^1\)-function and of an elementary, differential proof of the Riemann-Hurwitz formula. In a second part, they consider the equivariant Lusternik-Schnirelmann category and prove that it equals, with a few exceptions, the number of singular orbits of the action. They also show that the upper bound given by \textit{H. Colman} [Contemp. Math. 316, 35--40 (2002; Zbl 1035.55003)] is sharp in the case of preserving orientation actions on surfaces.