Involutions fixing \(F^{n} \cup F^{2}\) (Q2502972)

The paper under review studies involutions on smooth closed manifolds \(M^m\) having fixed point sets of the form \(F^n\cup F^2\) with \(2<n<m\) and nonbounding \(F^n\) and \(F^2\). Any such involution must be nonbounding since the fixed point set is restricted to be nonbounding. The main result of the paper is to determine the upper bound \(m(n;\{2\})\) of \(\dim M=m\), which is stated as follows: \[ m(n;\{2\})=\max\{m(n-2)+4,2n\} \] where \(m(\cdot)\) is a function from \({\mathbb N}\) to \({\mathbb N}\), defined as follows: for each natural number \(2^pq\), \(m(2^pq)\) is \(2^{p+1}q+p-q+1\) if \(p\leq q+1\) and \(2^{p+1}q+2^{p-q}\) if \(p\geq q\). Note that such a function \(m(\cdot)\) was found by [\textit{R. E. Stong} and \textit{P. L. Q. Pergher}, Transform. Groups 6, No. 1, 79--86 (2001; Zbl 0985.57017)].