On the homotopy fibre of the inclusion map \(F_n(X)\hookrightarrow \prod _1^nX\) for some orbit spaces \(X\) (Q2398343)

For a topological space \(X\) and an integer \(n\geq 1\), let \(F_n(X)\) denote the \(n\)-th configuration space of \(X\) defined by the subspace \[ F_n(X)=\{(x_1,\ldots ,x_n)\in X^n:x_i\not= x_j\text{ if }i\not=j\} \] and let \(i_n(X):F_n(X)\hookrightarrow X^n\) be the inclusion map. When a group \(G\) acts on the space \(X\), let \(q(X):X\to X/G\) be the natural projection and let \(F^G_n(X)\) denote the \(n\)-th orbit configuration space of \(X\) defined by the subspace \[ F^G_n(X)=\{(x_1,\ldots ,x_n)\in X^n:Gx_i\cap Gx_j=\emptyset\text{ if }i\not= j\}. \] In this situation, we have the natural projection map \(\psi(X):F_n^G(X)\to F_n(X/G)\). Moreover, for \(Q_1\in X\), we have two natural inclusions \[ i_n^{\prime\prime}(X):F_n^G(X\setminus GQ)\hookrightarrow X^n\text{ and }i_n^{\prime\prime}(X):F_n^G((X/G)\setminus\tilde{Q}_1)\hookrightarrow (X/G)^n \] where \(\tilde{Q}_1=q(X)(Q_1)\). In this paper, the authors study the homotopy type of the homotopy fibre of the inclusion maps \(i_n(X)\) and \(i^{\prime\prime}_n(X)\) when \(X\) is a topological manifold without boundary with \(\dim X\geq 3\), and they determine its homotopy type explicitly under certain conditions. As an application, they consider the case where either \(X\) is aspherical or \(X\) is an orbit space \(S^k/G\) of a tame free action of a Lie group \(G\) on the \(k\)-sphere \(S^k\). In particular, they obtain a full description of the long exact sequence in the homotopy fibration of the inclusion \(F_n(S^k/G)\hookrightarrow (S^k/G)^n\) when \(G\) is a finite group and \(k\) is odd.