Existence of nondegenerate \(\mathbb{Z}/2\) harmonic 1-forms via \(\mathbb{Z}_3\) symmetry (Q7016834)

The author studies the existence of so-called \(\mathbb{Z}/2\)-harmonic 1-forms on a compact Riemannian manifold \((M,g)\). Recall that a two-valued harmonic 1-form on \(M\) is defined by a set \((L,\mathcal{I},v)\) where \(L\) is a smooth oriented codimension 2 embedded submanifold of \(M\), \(\mathfrak{I}\) is a flat real line bundle over \(M\setminus L\) and \(v\in L^2\) is a \(\mathcal{I}\)-valued 1-form on \(M\setminus L\) satisfying \(dv=0,\, d(* v)=0\), where \(d\) is the differentiation on \(\mathcal{I}\). The author provides a topological condition for the existence of such structures, namely the conditions defining so-called \(\mathbb{Z}/3\)-symmetric triples, where a \(\mathbb{Z}/3\)-action \(\tau:M\to M\) is needed that can be lifted to a double covering \(\hat M\) of \(M\). He also constructs examples of such structures on rational homology 3-spheres.