Equivariant cohomology of cohomogeneity one actions (Q2446492)

Let \(R\) be a Noetherian local ring with maximal ideal \(\mathfrak{m}\) and \(A\) be a finitely-generated \(R\)-module, then \(x_1, \cdots, x_n \in \mathfrak{m}\) is called an \(A\)-sequence if \((x_1, \cdots, x_n)A\neq A\) and \(x_i\) is a nonzero divisor on \(A/(x_1, \cdots, x_{i-1})A\) for \(1 \leq i \leq n\). We write \(\mathrm{depth}A\) for the length of a maximal \(A\)-sequence. Then \(A\) is called a Cohen-Macaulay module over \(R\) if \(\mathrm{dim}A=\mathrm{depth}A\). The theme of this paper is to prove that if \(G\) is a compact connected Lie group acting on a compact connected manifold \(M\) in such a way that there is at least one codimension-one orbit then \(H^*_G(M; \mathbb{R})\) is a Cohen-Macaulay module over \(H^*(BG; \mathbb{R})\). The proof is split into two cases based on the two possibilities for \(M/G\), which is diffeomorphic to either \(S^1\) or \([0,1]\). For the former case the authors owe its proof to the result of the first author of this paper and \textit{S. Rollenske} [Transform. Groups 16, No. 4, 1063--1080 (2011; Zbl 1254.55003)]. In this paper the authors provide a proof for the case \(M/G=[0, 1]\). The idea of the proof can be outlined as follows. First, choose a geodesic \(\gamma\) perpendicular to the orbits \(K^-=G_{\gamma(0)}\), \(K^+=G_{\gamma(1)}\), \(H=G_{\gamma(t)}\), \(t \in (0, 1)\). According to the slice theorem, \(M\) can be realized by gluing the tubular neighborhoods \(G/K^\pm\times_{K^\pm}D^\pm\) along their common boundaries where \(D^\pm\) are the unit disks in the normal spaces at \(\gamma(0)\) and \(\gamma(1)\). Then we have a Mayer-Vietoris split short exact sequence \[ 0 \to H^*_G(M) \to H^*_G(G/K^-)\oplus H^*_G(G/K^+) \to H^*_G(G/H) \to 0. \] Put \(b=\text{rank}K^-\). Then, for example, in the case when \(\text{rank}K^+=b\), since both \(H^*_G(G/K^-)\) and \(H^*_G(G/K^+)\) are Cohen-Macaulay modules over\(H^*(BG)\) of dimension \(b\), it follows that the middle term in the sequence above becomes also a Cohen-Macaulay module over \(H^*(BG)\) of dimension \(b\). Hence from the fact that \(H^*_G(G/H)\) is a Cohen-Macaulay module over \(H^*(BG)\) of dimension \(b-1\), we find \(b \leq \text{depth}H^*_G(M) \leq \text{dim}H^*_G(M)=b\), which concludes that \(H^*_G(M)\) is a Cohen-Macaulay module over \(H^*(BG)\) of dimension \(b\). The remaining case in which \(\text{rank}K^+=b-1\) is verified in a similar way above but it requires a more lengthy discussion. Finally, several corollaries to the above theorem are given.