Torus actions on Alexandrov 4-spaces (Q2670701)

Alexandrov spaces (with curvature bounded from below) are complete length spaces with a lower curvature bound, in the sense of triangle comparison. By Toponogov's Theorem, they generalize complete Riemannian manifolds with a uniform lower curvature bound. Examples of Alexandrov spaces are Riemannian orbifolds (with a lower sectional curvature bound), orbit spaces of isometric actions of compact Lie groups on Riemannian manifolds with sectional curvature bounded from below, and Gromov-Hausdorff limits of sequences of \(n\)-dimensional Riemannian manifolds with a uniform lower bound on their sectional curvature. Given a fixed Lie group \(G\) acting a space, by \textit{equivariant classification} it is meant being able to decide when two spaces with a \(G\)-action are equivariantly homeomorphic. In the present article, the authors obtain the \textit{equivariant classification of effective, isometric \(T^2\)-actions on closed, orientable Alexandrov 4-spaces by determining a complete set of invariants for such spaces}. They also prove that \textit{a closed, orientable Alexandrov 4-space \(X\) admitting an effective, isometric \(T^2\)-action is equivariantly homeomorphic to the underlying topological space of a closed 4-orbifold.} The above results extend the equivariant classification of \(T^2\)-actions on closed 4-manifolds by \textit{P. Orlik} and \textit{F. Raymond} in the orientable case [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 33, 531--559 (1970; Zbl 0216.20202); Topology 13, 89--112 (1974; Zbl 0287.57017)], and by \textit{M. H. Kim} in the non-orientable case [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 335(1), 105--130 (1993)].