A stable approach to the equivariant Hopf theorem (Q2371785)

The author is concerned with oriented \(W\)-dimensional semi-free \(G\)-manifolds \(M\) (\(G\) is a finite group, \(W\) is a real \(G\)-representation) and prove an equivariant Hopf theorem which gives a description of the set of \(G\)-homotopy classes of \(G\)-maps from \(M\) to \(S^{W}\) in the generic case when the dimension and codimension of the fixed point space are at least 2. The homotopy classes of \(G\)-equivariant maps into a \(G\)-sphere are described in terms of their degrees, and the degrees occuring are characterised in terms of congruences. This is first shown to be a stable problem and then solved using methods of equivariant stable homotopy theory with respect to a semi-free \(G\) universe (obtained from a complete \(G\) universe by restriction to the semi-free subrepresentations).