On the bordism group for group actions on the torus (Q2675317)

The main result of the present paper is the construction of an action of a group \(\Gamma\) (infinite, discrete) on the torus, by diffeomorphisms isotopic to the identity, that does not extend to an action on a compact bounding 3-manifold (i.e., represents a nontrivial element of the group of bordism classes \(\Delta (\Gamma,2)\) of actions of \(\Gamma\) on 2-manifolds). In previous work [Math. Ann. 377, No. 3--4, 1313--1338 (2020; Zbl 1448.57030)], the authors studied obstructions on extending isotopically trivial actions of a group \(\Gamma\) on a manifold \(M\) of dimension \(n\) to a manifold \(W\) with boundary \(\partial(W) = M\); as the authors note, this did not furnish an example of a group \(\Gamma\) such that the bordism group \(\Delta (\Gamma,n)\) is nontrivial for any \(n > 1\), and such an example is the main point of the present paper. The group \(\Gamma\) considered is the product \(G' \times G'\) where \(G' \subset\mathrm{Diff}_0(S^1)\) is the smooth conjugate of the standard action of Thompson's group constructed by \textit{E. Ghys} and \textit{V. Sergiescu} [Comment. Math. Helv. 62, 185--239 (1987; Zbl 0647.58009)]. The present authors show that the product action of \(\Gamma = G' \times G'\) on the torus \(S^1 \times S^1\) represents a nontrivial element of the bordism group \(\Delta (\Gamma,2)\), by using two independent approaches: a geometric-topological one (relying on the geometrization for 3-manifolds and torsion elements in \(\Gamma\)), and another one using cohomology of diffeomorphism groups.