The decomposability of \(\mathbb Z_2\)-manifolds in cut-and-paste equivalence (Q932975)

Let \(\mathbb M_m^{G}\) be the set of the \(m\)-dimensional closed \(G\)-manifolds. There is an equivalence relation on this set given by cutting and pasting, and the set of equivalence classes is denoted by \(\mathcal M_m^{G}/SK\). The paper under review provides some results about the Grothendieck group of this monoid \(\mathcal M_m^{G}/SK\), denoted by \(SK_{*}^G\), for the case where the group \(G\) is \(\mathbb Z_2\). The case where the finite group \(G\) has odd cardinality has been considered in \textit{K. Komiya} [Osaka J. Math. 42, No.~1, 233--241 (2005; Zbl 1072.57028)]. Given two elements \(u\in SK_{m}^{\mathbb Z_2}\) and \(v\in SK_{n}^{\mathbb Z_2}\), with \(n\leq m\) one would like to know whether there is an element \(w\in SK_{m-n}^{\mathbb Z_2}\) such that \(u=vw\). The main result of the paper gives a necessary and sufficient conditions for this decomposition. This is Theorem 3.1 which says: For \(u\in SK_m^{\mathbb Z_2}\) and \(v\in SK_n^{\mathbb Z_2}\) \((n\leq m)\), there exists \(w\in SK_{m-n}^{\mathbb Z_2}\) such that \(u=vw\) in \(SK_*^{\mathbb Z_2}\), if and only if the system of linear equations \((*)\) has an admissible solution. The linear system referred to is over the integers and is written in terms of the Euler characteristic of the connected components of the fixed point set of the involution, taking in account the dimension of the components of the fixed point set. In the last section we have several comments comparing the main result with the results for \(G\) odd. Also the author applies the main result to the case where the class \(v\) comes from a free involution. This is Corollary 4.4.