No label defined (Q4790334)

Let \({\mathcal A}\) be one of the categories: Topological spaces and continuous maps, piecewise linear spaces and piecewise linear maps, smooth manifolds and smooth maps. Then two objects \(A\) and \(B\) are said to be stably equivalent if there is an object \(C\) such that \(A\times C\) and \(B\times C\) are isomorphic. This question is known as the Cancellation Problem. From noncancellation phenomena arise many examples of exotic symmetries on familiar spaces. The problem was studied by \textit{V. Poenaru} [Bull. Soc. Math. Fr. 88, 113-129 (1960; Zbl 0135.41704); Proc. Int. Congr. Math. 1962, 481-489 (1963; Zbl 0151.32906)], \textit{B. Mazur} [Bull. Am. Math. Soc. 67, 377-384 (1961; Zbl 0107.17002); Ann. Math. (2) 73, 221-228 (1961; Zbl 0127.13604); ibid. 83, 387-401 (1966; Zbl 0141.40501)], \textit{K. Kawakubo} [J. Math. Soc. Japan 21, 37-47 (1969; Zbl 0176.21502); Osaka J. Math. 6, 165-196 (1969; Zbl 0191.54403); Adv. Stud. Pure Math. 9, North-Holland, Amsterdam-New York (1987; Zbl 0658.57021)], \textit{R. DeSapio} [Comment. Math. Helv. 44, 61-69 (1969; Zbl 0162.55303); Ann. Math. (2) 89, 61-69 (1969; Zbl 0204.56701)] and the second named author [Ann. Math. (2) 90, 187-198 (1969; Zbl 0183.28201); Math. Z. 131, 49-75 (1973; Zbl 0244.55202)]. The purpose of this article is to illustrate that stable equivalence problems arise quite frequently in various contexts of geometric topology, with particular attention to some questions about transformation groups and remarks about problems of this sort that were studied by Kawakubo. In this context, three types of problems are studied. In Section 1 the authors discuss some ways in which noncancellation results lend to the construction of exotic group actions in some contexts and regularity principles in others. For example: Theorem 2. Let \(n\geq 7\) and let \(\sigma^n\) be an exotic \(n\)-sphere that bounds a parallelizable \((n+1)\)-manifold (such exotic spheres exist if \(n\) is odd and \(n+3\) is not a power of 2). Then there is a smooth semifree \(S^1\) action on some smooth homotopy sphere \(M^{n+4}\) whose fixed point set is diffeomorphic to \(\Sigma^n\). This is a corollary to the fact that \(\Sigma^n\times S^2\) is diffeomorphic to \(S^n\times S^2\) but \(\Sigma^n\times \mathbb{R}^2\) is diffeomorphic to \(S^n\times \mathbb{R}^2\). For equivariant stable equivalence the following theorem holds: Theorem 3. Suppose that \(f:M^n\to N^n\) is an equivariant tangential homotopy equivalence of closed smooth \(G\)-manifold and assume that \(M^n\) and \(N^n\) satisfy the Gap Hypothesis. Then \(M^n\times \mathbb{R}^k\) is equivariantly diffeomorphic to \(N^n\times \mathbb{R}^k\) for some \(k\), where \(G\) acts trivially on \(\mathbb{R}^k\). (The standard Gap Hypothesis: If \(P^n= M^n\) or \(N^n\) and \(K\), \(H\) are subgroups of \(G\) such that \(K\subset H\) but \(\text{Fix}(H, P)\subsetneqq \text{Fix}(K,P)\), then \(\dim\text{Fix}(K, P)\geq 2\dim\text{Fix}(H,P)+ 1\).) The second section of the paper deals with conceptual issues in equivariant surgery. The authors describe how one can use the periodicity results of \textit{K. H. Dovermann} and \textit{R. Schultz} [Equivariant surgery theories and their periodicity properties, Lect. Notes Math. 1443, Springer (1990; Zbl 0712.57001)] and multiplicative stabilizations to construct infinite extensions of the ``rather long'' but finite exact equivariant surgery sequences of \textit{K. H. Dovermann} and \textit{M. Rothenberg} [Mem. Am. Math. Soc. 71, No. 379 (1988; Zbl 0645.57002)] and \textit{W. Lück} and \textit{I. Madsen} [Math. Z. 203, 503-526 (1990; Zbl 0698.57009); ibid. 204, 253-268 (1990; Zbl 0735.57020)] provided the group under consideration has odd order; the underlying idea is that multiplicative stabilization provides a way to recapture a portion of equivariant surgery theory when the Gap Hypothesis fails. Finally, in Section 3 the authors describe some applications of multiplicative stabilization and controlled topology to the symmetry properties of 4-manifolds. In particular, the existence of a topological 4-manifold Ch (the Chern manifold) is obtained that is homotopy equivalent but not homeomorphic to \(\mathbb{C}\mathbb{P}^2\). One criterion for distinguishing these two manifolds is that \(\mathbb{C}\mathbb{P}^2\times \mathbb{R}^k\) has a canonical smooth structure for each \(k\geq 0\) but \(\text{Ch}\times \mathbb{R}^k\) has no smooth structure at all. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0997.00013].