Smooth circle actions on highly symmetric manifolds (Q930544)

In [Proc. Conf. Transform. Groups, New Orleans 1967, 223--234 (1968; Zbl 0199.59104)], \textit{W. C. Hsiang} and \textit{W. Y. Hsiang} posed the following question: Hsiangs' question. Let \(G\) be a compact Lie group. Assume that \(G\) acts smoothly on a Euclidean space containing two points \(x\) and \(y\) such that \(G_x=G_y=H\) for a subgroup \(H\) of \(G\). Is it true that the tangent \(H\)-modules at \(x\) and \(y\) are always isomorphic to each other? The contribution of the paper under review is to construct for the first time smooth \(S^1\)-actions on highly symmetric manifolds such as disks, spheres, and Euclidean spaces containing two points with the same isotropy subgroups whose tangent representations at the two points are not isomorphic to each other, which lead to a negative answer to Hsiangs' question. The main result of the paper is stated as follows. Theorem. The answer to Hsiangs' question is negative provided \(G\) is a compact Lie group such that \(S^1\) is a quotient of \(G\), and \(H=f^{-1}({\mathbb Z}_{pq})\) for an epimorphism \(f:G\longrightarrow S^1\), where \((p,q)=1\).