Involutions on \(S^6\) with 3-dimensional fixed point set (Q600803)

The author of the paper under review studies a special conjugation space, i.e., the 6-dimensional sphere \(S^6\) with involutions fixing a 3-dimensional fixed point set. In the celebrated work of his previous paper [Math. Ann. 342, No.~2, 255--271 (2008; Zbl 1154.57034)], the author showed that every \({\mathbb Z}_2\)-homology 3-sphere is the fixed point set of an involution on \(S^6\), which gives a converse to the Smith theorem (the fixed point set of any \({\mathbb Z}_2\)-action on \(S^6\) is a \({\mathbb Z}_2\)-homology sphere). It is well-known that there exists no equivariant Montgomery-Yang correspondence. The main purpose of the author in the paper under review is to study the equivariant classification of all smooth involutions on \(S^6\). One of the main results is the following Theorem A. Suppose that \(M\) is a smooth closed simply connected spin 6-manifold such that \(H_2(M)={\mathbb Z}\) and \(H_3(M)=0\). Let \(x\in H^2(M)\) be a generator. If \(M\not\cong S^2\times S^4\), then {\parindent6.5mm \begin{itemize}\item[(1)] there exists no free involution on \(M\) when \(\langle(p_1(M)x-4x^3)/24, [M]\rangle\) is odd; \item[(2)] there exist exactly two free involutions up to diffeomorphism on \(M\) when \(\langle(p_1(M)x-4x^3)/24, [M]\rangle\) is even and \(\langle x^3,[M]\rangle\) is odd; \item[(3)] there exist exactly five free involutions up to diffeomorphism on \(M\) when \(\langle(p_1(M)x-4x^3)/24, [M]\rangle\) and \(\langle x^3,[M]\rangle\) are even. \end{itemize}} If \(M\cong S^2\times S^4\), then the same classification holds for orientation-reversing involutions which act by \(-1\) on \(H^2(M)\). Some known results are also reproved with a different method. In particular, the author classifies all involutions on \(S^6\) fixing a 3-dimensional fixed point set. The result is stated as follows: Theorem B. Conjugations up to preserving-orientation conjugation with fixed point set of a fixed oriented diffeomorphism type of \({\mathbb Z}_2\)-homology 3-spheres are in bijection with \({\mathbb Z}\oplus{\mathbb Z}_4\). Under connected sum, \(\text{Inv}_{S^3}(S^6)\cong {\mathbb Z}\oplus{\mathbb Z}_4\) is an isomorphism of groups, and \(\text{Inv}_{S^3}(S^6)\) acts freely and transitively on \(\text{Inv}_{N}(s^6)\) for every \({\mathbb Z}_2\)-homology 3-sphere \(N\), where \(\text{Inv}_{N}(S^6)\) consists of equivariant diffeomorphism classes of all involutions on \(S^6\) with \(N\) as a fixed point set.