Stationary point free elementary abelian 2-group actions on Grassmannians -- an elementary approach (Q689772)

Let \(FG_{n,k}\) denote the real \((F=\mathbb{R})\) or complex \((F=\mathbb{C})\) or quaternionic \((F=\mathbb{H})\) Grassmann manifold of all \(k\)-dimensional (left) vector subspaces in \(F^ n\). It is known [\textit{P. Sankaran}, Can. Math. Bull. 34, No. 1, 119-122 (1991; Zbl 0667.57020)] that an elementary abelian 2-group acts smoothly without stationary points on \(FG_{n,k}\) if and only if the following condition (D) is satisfied: there exists an \(r\geq 1\) such that \(n\equiv 0\pmod {2^ r}\) and \(k\not\equiv 0\pmod {2^ r}\). Interpreting \(FG_{n,k}\) as a manifold of all Hermitian idempotent \(n\times n\)-matrices over \(F\) with trace \(k\) and using elementary linear algebra considerations, we exhibit on each \(FG_{n,k}\) satisfying the condition (D) a certain number \(p_ F(r)\) of pair-wise commuting involutions without a common fixed point. This is equivalent to a stationary point free action of the elementary abelian 2-group of rank \(p_ F(r)\) on \(FG_{n,k}\). For certain values of \(r\), our rank \(p_ F(r)\) turns out to be the best (the smallest) possible. Since \textit{P. Sankaran} [Arch. Math. 50, No. 5, 474-476 (1988; Zbl 0627.57023)] proves that on \(\mathbb{R} G{n,k}\) satisfying the condition (D) there is an action of the elementary abelian 2-group of rank \(p\), with \(p\) being chosen so that the reducible module(s) over the Clifford algebra \(C_ p\) has (have) dimension \(2^ r\), we compare our rank \(p_ F(r)\), for \(F=\mathbb{R}\), \(\mathbb{C}\), or \(\mathbb{H}\), with the smallest \(p\) such that the irreducible \(C_ p\)-module(s) has (have) dimension \(2^ r\).