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The aim of this paper is to study compact 5--manifolds which admit fixed point free circle actions. The first result implies that the torsion in the second homology and the second Stiefel--Whitney class have to satisfy strong restrictions.…

We show that every closed, simply connected, spin topological 4-manifold except $S^4$ and $S^2\times S^2$ admits a homologically trivial, pseudofree, locally linear action of $\mathbb{Z}_p$ for any sufficiently large prime number $p$ which…

Let G be a connected semisimple Lie group without compact factors whose real rank is at least 2, and let \Gamma \subset G be an irreducible lattice. We provide a C^\infty classification for volume-preserving Cartan actions of \Gamma and G.…

Let a torus act on a compact oriented manifold $M$ with isolated fixed points, with an additional mild assumption that its isotropy submanifolds are orientable. We associate a signed labeled multigraph encoding the fixed point data (weights…

This paper initiated an investigation on the following question: Suppose a smooth 4-manifold does not admit any smooth circle actions. Does there exist a constant $C>0$ such that the manifold support no smooth $\Z_p$-actions of prime order…

In this paper, we classify homomorphisms from the braid group of $n$ strands to the mapping class group of a genus $g$ surface. In particular, we show that when $g<n-2$, all representations are either cyclic or standard. Our result is sharp…

Let $C_2$ denote the cyclic group of order 2. We compute the $RO(C_2)$-graded cohomology of all $C_2$-surfaces with constant integral coefficients. We show when the action is nonfree, the answer depends only on the genus, the orientability…

We consider finite group-actions on 3-manifolds $\cal H_g$ obtained as the connected sum of $g$ copies of $S^2 \times S^1$, with free fundamental group $F_g$ of rank $g$. We prove that, for $g > 1$, a finite group of diffeomorphisms of…

The group SL(n,Z) admits a smooth faithful action on the (n-1)-sphere S^(n-1), induced from its linear action on euclidean space R^n. We show that, if m < n-1 and n > 2, any smooth action of SL(n,Z) on a mod 2 homology m-sphere, and in…

We work in the smooth category. Let $N$ be a closed connected orientable 4-manifold with torsion free $H_1$, where $H_q := H_q(N; \mathbb Z)$. Our main result is a readily calculable classification of embeddings $N\to\mathbb R^7$ up to…

We establish lower bounds on the dimensions in which arithmetic groups with torsion can act on acyclic manifolds and homology spheres. The bounds rely on the existence of elementary p-groups in the groups concerned. In some cases, including…

Let $\mathrm{Mod}(S_g)$ denote the mapping class group of the closed orientable surface $S_g$ of genus $g\geq 2$. Given a finite subgroup $H$ of $\mathrm{Mod}(S_g)$, let $\mathrm{Fix}(H)$ denote the set of fixed points induced by the action…

For $n\geq 2$ we compute the homotopy groups of $(n-1)$-connected closed manifolds of dimension $(2n+1)$. Away from the finite set of primes dividing the order of the torsion subgroup in homology, the $p$-local homotopy groups of $M$ are…

It is proved that an arbitrary finite group acting locally linearly, homologically trivially, and pseudofreely on a closed, simply connected 4-manifold must in fact be cyclic and act semifreely, provided the second betti number of the…

Let $\mathrm{Mod}(S_g)$ be the mapping class group of the closed orientable surface $S_g$ of genus $g\geq 2$. In this paper, we derive necessary and sufficient conditions under which two torsion elements in $\mathrm{Mod}(S_g)$ will have…

In this paper, we study a natural class of groups that act as affine transformations of $\mathbb T^N$. We investigate whether these solvable, "abelian-by-cyclic," groups can act smoothly and nonaffinely on $\mathbb T^N$ while remaining…

Any continuous action of SL(n,Z), where n > 2, on a r-dimensional mod 2 homology sphere factors through a finite group action if r < n - 1. In particular, any continuous action of SL(n+2,Z) on the n-dimensional sphere factors through a…

Let $X$ be a finite CW-complex having mod $p$ cohomology isomorphic to a wedge of three spheres $\mathbb{S}^n\vee \mathbb{S}^m \vee \mathbb{S}^l,~ 1\leq n \leq m \leq l$. The aim of this paper is to determine the fixed point sets of actions…

Deformation spaces Hom($\pi$,G)/G of representations of the fundamental group $\pi$ of a surface $\Sigma$ in a Lie group $G$ admit natural actions of the mapping class group $Mod_\Sigma$, preserving a Poisson structure. When $G$ is compact,…

In this paper we show that most rank two groups act freely on a finite homotopy product of two spheres. This makes new progress on a conjecture by Benson and Carlson which states that a finite group G acts freely on a finite complex with…