A note on the degree of symmetry of exotic spheres (Q652226)

Let \(M\) be a manifold and \(N(M)\) denote its degree of symmetry. In the paper [``Compact differentiable transformation groups on exotic spheres'', Math. Ann. 299, No. 2, 355--389 (1994; Zbl 0808.57026)], \textit{E. Straume} posed the conjecture: ``If \(\Sigma^n\) is a homotopy \(n\)-sphere which does not bound a parallelizable manifold then \(N(\Sigma^n)<{1\over 2}(n+1)\)''. The paper under review gives an example of a homotopy 10-sphere \(\Sigma^{10}\) which does not bound a parallelizable manifold but admits an effective \(SO(4)\)-action. This means that \(N(\Sigma^{10})>{1\over 2}(10+1)\), providing a counterexample of the above conjecture. Such an example was constructed by using an explicit generator of \(\pi_6(S^3)\).