Nonnegatively curved fixed point homogeneous manifolds in low dimensions (Q2429482)

Let \(M\) denote a compact, Riemannian manifold, and let \(G\) denote a compact group acting effectively on \(M\) by isometries. \(M\) is said to be \textit{fixed point homogeneous} (relative to \(G\)) if \(\dim M/G = 1 + \dim M^{G}\), where \(M/G\) denotes the orbit space of \(G\) and \(M^{G}\) denotes the set of points in \(M\) fixed by \(G\). If \(M\) has sectional curvature \(K \geq 0\), then it is known that the orbit space \(M/G\) is an Alexandrov space with \(K \geq 0\). Hence in the case that \(M\) has \(K \geq 0\), the classification of such compact group actions, to the extent possible, is a natural outgrowth of the work of Grove, Ziller and others on manifolds with \(K \geq 0\) whose isometry group has a codimension one orbit. Compact fixed point homogeneous manifolds with \(K > 0\) have been completely classified by Grove and Searle. In this article the author classifies fixed point homogeneous manifolds \(M\) with \(K \geq 0\) in dimensions 3 and 4. The groups \(G\) that appear in the classification are \(S^{1}, SU(2), SO(3,\mathbb{R})\) and \(SO(4,\mathbb{R})\). The author also classifies the orbit types for all fixed point homogeneous \(S^{1}\) actions on compact, simply connected 4-manifolds. The author uses the known topological classification of 2-dimensional Alexandrov spaces with \(K \geq 0\) , all of which are topological 2-manifolds, possibly with boundary. The classification results of \(S^{1}\) actions in dimension 3 by Orlik-Raymond and in dimension 4 by Fintushel also play an important role.