Related papers: Constructions of exotic actions on product manifol…

We study finite group actions on smooth manifolds of the form $M\#\Sigma$, where $\Sigma$ is an exotic $n$-sphere and $M$ is a closed aspherical space form. We give a classification result for free actions of finite groups on $M\#\Sigma$…

We produce infinite families of exotic actions of finite cyclic groups on simply connected smooth 4-manifolds with nontrivial Seiberg-Witten invariants.

A free action of a finite group on an odd-dimensional sphere is said to be almost linear if the action restricted to each cyclic or 2-hyperelementary subgroup is conjugate to a free linear action. We begin this survey paper by reviewing the…

This paper contains several results concerning circle action on almost-complex and smooth manifolds. More precisely, we show that, for an almost-complex manifold $M^{2mn}$(resp. a smooth manifold $N^{4mn}$), if there exists a partition…

Let $M$ be a closed, connected, orientable topological four-manifold with $H_1(M)$ nontrivial and free abelian, $b_2(M)\ne 0, 2$, and $\chi(M)\ne 0$. We show that if $G$ is a finite group of 2-rank $\le 1$ which admits a homologically…

We construct a non-abelian extension $\Gamma$ of $S^1$ by $\cy 3 \times \cy 3$, and prove that $\Gamma$ acts freely and smoothly on $S^{5} \times S^{5}$. This gives new actions on $S^{5} \times S^{5}$ for an infinite family $\cP$ of finite…

Let M be a closed connected oriented manifold admitting a non-zero degree map to a nilmanifold. In the first part of the paper we study effective finite group actions on M. In particular, we prove that Homeo(M) is Jordan, we bound the…

The Dold manifold $ P(m,n)$ is the quotient of $S^m \times \mathbb{C}P^n$ by the free involution that acts antipodally on $ S^m $ and by complex conjugation on $ \mathbb{C}P^n $. In this paper, we investigate free actions of finite groups…

Let $p$ be an odd prime. We construct a non-abelian extension $\Gamma$ of $S^1$ by $Z/p \times Z/p$, and prove that any finite subgroup of $\Gamma$ acts freely and smoothly on $S^{2p-1} \times S^{2p-1}$. In particular, for each odd prime…

We consider finite groups which admit a faithful, smooth action on an acyclic manifold of dimension three, four or five (e.g. euclidean space). Our first main result states that a finite group acting on an acyclic 3- or 4-manifold is…

There are known infinite families of Brieskorn homology 3-spheres which can be realized as boundaries of smooth contractible 4-manifolds. In this paper we show that free periodic actions on these Brieskorn spheres do not extend smoothly…

Let S be a connected orientable surface with finitely many punctures, finitely many boundary components, and genus at least 6. Then any C^1 action of the mapping class group of S on the circle is trivial. The techniques used in the proof of…

On a smooth closed oriented $4$-manifold $M$ with a smooth action by a compact Lie group $G$, we define a $G$-monopole class as an element of $H^2(M;\Bbb Z)$ which is the first Chern class of a $G$-equivariant Spin$^c$ structure which has a…

In this paper, we study the action of $\text{Homeo}_0(M)$, the identity component of the group of homeomorphisms of an $n$-dimensional manifold $M$ with an $\mathbb{F}_p$-free action, on another manifold $N$ of dimension $n+k<2n$. We prove…

A survey of finite group actions on symplectic 4-manifolds is given with a special emphasis on results and questions concerning smooth or symplectic classification of group actions, group actions and exotic smooth structures, and…

We are interested in finite groups acting orientation-preservingly on 3-manifolds (arbitrary actions, ie not necessarily free actions). In particular we consider finite groups which contain an involution with nonempty connected fixed point…

Let $T$ be a compact fibered $3$--manifold, presented as a mapping torus of a compact, orientable surface $S$ with monodromy $\psi$, and let $M$ be a compact Riemannian manifold. Our main result is that if the induced action $\psi^*$ on…

Let $(M, \omega)$ be a 6-dimensional closed symplectic manifold with a symplectic $S^1$-action with $M^{S^1} \neq \emptyset$ and $\dim M^{S^1} \leq 2$. Assume that $\omega$ is integral with a generalized moment map $\mu$. We first prove…

In this partly expository monograph we develop a general framework for producing uncountable families of exotic actions of certain classically studied groups acting on the circle. We show that if $L$ is a nontrivial limit group then the…

Smooth and symplectic symmetries of an infinite family of distinct exotic $K3$ surfaces are studied, and comparison with the corresponding symmetries of the standard $K3$ is made. The action on the $K3$ lattice induced by a smooth finite…