Two commuting involutions fixing \(F^n \cup F^{n-1}\) (Q2494095)

The purpose of the work under review is to study \(\mathbb Z_2 \oplus \mathbb Z_2\)-actions, defined on closed and smooth manifolds, whose fixed point set consists of two components, \(F^n\) and \(F^{n-1}\), with dimensions \(n\) and \(n-1\), respectively; here, \(\mathbb Z_2 \oplus \mathbb Z_2\) is understood as the group generated by two commuting involutions. \textit{C. Kosniowski} and \textit{R. E. Stong} [Topology 17, 309--330 (1978; Zbl 0402.57005)] proved that if \(M^m\) is a closed and smooth \(m\)-dimensional manifold with a smooth involution \(T:M^m \to M^m\) such that the fixed point set \(F_T\) of \(T\) has constant dimension \(n\), and if \(m>2n\), then \((M^m,T)\) bounds equivariantly. The authors prove two results, where one extends the result of Kosniowski and Stong for the situation in which \(F_T=F^n \cup F^{n-1}\). For the first result they consider a smooth action \(\Phi\) of \(\mathbb Z_2 \oplus \mathbb Z_2\) on a manifold \(M^m\) of dimension \(m\) for which \(F_{\Phi}= F^n \cup F^{n-1}\), with \(F^n\) and \(F^{n-1}\) connected. Under certain hypothesis, which involve the dimensions of the three subbundles of the fixed data of the action, they show that \((M^m, \Phi)\) bounds equivariantly. The second result, extending the Stong-Kosniowski result, says: if \(T:M^m \to M^m\) is an involution whose fixed set \(F_T\) has the form \(F_T=F^n \cup F^{n-1}\), with \(F^n\) and \(F^{n-1}\) not necessarily connected, and with \(m>2n\), then \((M,T)\) bounds equivariantly. The main tools used are the equivariant cobordism theory of involutions of Conner and Floyd, some recent extensions of some results of this theory to \(\mathbb Z_2 \oplus\mathbb Z_2\)-actions obtained by the first author, and computations involving characteristic numbers of the bundles involved.