Topological classification of multiaxial \(U(n)\)-actions (with an appendix by Jared Bass) (Q747607)

An action of the unitary group \(U(n)\) on a manifold is called multiaxial if all of its isotropy subgroups are unitary subgroups, the fixed sets are ANR homology manifolds, and embeddings of the strata in the orbit space are 1-LC (a standard weak kind of homotopy local flatness condition as regards fundamental groups). The isotropy subgroups of a multiaxial \(U(n)\)-manifold \(M\) are conjugate to the specific unitary subgroups \(U(i)\) of \(U(n)\) that fix the subspaces \(0\oplus \mathbb C^{n-i}\) of \(\mathbb C^n\). Then \(M\) is stratified by \(M_{-i}=U(n)M^{U(i)}\), the set of points fixed by some conjugate of \(U(i)\). Correspondingly, the orbit space \(X=M/U(n)\) is stratified by \(X_{-i}=M^{U(i)}/U(n-i)\). Let \(X^{-i}=X_{-i}-X_{<-i}\). The main result of this paper states that the stratified simple homotopy structure set of \(X\) is almost always determined by the restrictions to the homeomorphism classes of simple homotopy equivalences to the pair \((\overline{X}^{-i}, \partial \overline{X}^{-i})\) using a particular half of the set of strata \(X_{-i}\).