Torus actions, fixed-point formulas, elliptic genera and positive curvature (Q335542)

This is a survey paper on techniques used to study fixed points of smooth torus actions on closed manifolds. The author discusses fixed point formulas and rigidity and vanishing theorems for classical operators and elliptic genera. In the first part of the paper, he recalls the localization theorems and fixed point formulas in cohomology, topological K-theory, and index theory. He then applies the fixed point formulas to describe various conditions that guarantee that a smooth torus action has at least one fixed point. The fixed point formulas are also applied to obtain information about the cohomology of the fixed point manifold for a large class of manifolds. In the second part of the paper, the author first recalls the rigidity of the signature and Dirac and Dolbeault operators. He then describes the rigidity theorems for elliptic genera of level \(N\geq 2\) and explains the related higher order vanishing results. As this is an expository paper, many of the results are known, at least to the experts. The higher order vanishing results for elliptic genera of level \(N\) and applications to manifolds of positive curvature are new.