Dynamical and cohomological obstructions to extending group actions (Q785344)

The paper is motivated by the general question of when a group-action on the boundary \(\partial M\) of a compact manifold \(M\) extends to an action on \(M\), considering mainly the case of diffeomorphisms isotopic to the identity and of 3-manifolds \(M\) whose boundary is the torus \(T^2\). Specifically, when does a homomorphism \(\rho: \Gamma \to \mathrm{Diff}_0(\partial M)\) of a discrete group \(\Gamma\) to the group of diffeomorphisms isotopic to the identity lift to a homomorphism \(\phi: \Gamma \to\mathrm{Diff}_0(M)\)? Passing to the induced maps in the cohomology of the classifying spaces, one finds possible obstructions to such lifts by applying \(\rho^*: H^*(\mathrm{BDiff}_0(\partial M)) \to H^*(\mathrm{B}\Gamma)\) to the kernel of the induced map \(r^*: H^*(\mathrm{BDiff}_0(\partial M)) \to H^*(\mathrm{BDiff}_0(M))\) where \(r\) denotes the canonical restriction map \(r:\mathrm{Diff}_0(M) \to\mathrm{Diff}_0(\partial M)\). Specializing to the case of compact orientable 3-manifolds \(M\) with torus-boundary \(\partial M \cong T^2\) which are not diffeomorphic to the solid torus \(D^2 \times S^1\), the first main theorem of the paper states that the kernel of \(r^*: H^2(\mathrm{BDiff}_0(T^2); \mathbb Q) \to H^2(\mathrm{BDiff}_0(M); \mathbb Q)\) is nontrivial and hence can give rise to such purely group-theoretical obstructions (and the same for \(\mathrm{Homeo}_0\) instead of \(\mathrm{Diff}_0\)). The second main theorem is as follows. Suppose that an action \(\rho: \Gamma \to\mathrm{Diff}_0(T^2)\) extends to a \(C^0\)-action on an orientable 3-manifold \(M\) with \(\partial M \cong T^2\); then, if two obstruction classes \(\rho^*(x_1)\) and \(\rho^*(x_2)\) are linearly independent in rational cohomology, \(M\) is diffeomorphic to the solid torus \(D^2 \times S^1\); here \(x_1\) and \(x_2\) are generators of the rational cohomology, isomorphic to \(\mathbb Q[x_1,x_2]\), of the classifying spaces \(\mathrm{BDiff}_0(T^2)\) and \(\mathrm{BHomeo}_0(T^2)\). A second part of the theorem states that there is a finitely generated subgroup \(\Gamma\) of \(\mathrm{Diff}_0(T^2)\) which does not extend to a group of \(C^1\)-diffeomorphisms isotopic to the identity of any 3-manifold with boundary \(T^2\). As a concrete application, the action of \(S^1 \times S^1\) on \(T^2\) (considered as a discrete group) does not lift to a \(C^0\)-action by homeomorphisms isotopic to the identity of any 3-manifold \(M\) different from \(D^2 \times S^1\) and with boundary \(T^2\). It is also proved that, for any 3-manifold \(M\) with \(\partial M \cong S^2\), there is no extension of \(\mathrm{Diff}_0(\partial M)\) to the group of \(C^1\)-diffeomorphisms \(\mathrm{Diff}_0^1(M)\) (note that there is an extension by homeomorphisms to the 3-ball \(B^3\), by coning over the origin).