Petrie conjecture

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Suppose that $M$ is a closed smooth manifold homotopy equivalent to $\CP^n$ and that $S^1$ acts smoothly and non-trivially on $M$. Then the total Pontrjagin class $p(M)$ of $M$ agrees with that of $\CP^n$, i.e., for a generator $x \in H^2(M; \mathbb{Z})$, $$p(M) = (1+x^2)^{n+1}.$$
Suppose that $M$ is a closed smooth manifold homotopy equivalent to $\CP^n$ and that $S^1$ acts smoothly and non-trivially on $M$. Then the total Pontrjagin class $p(M)$ of $M$ agrees with that of $\CP^n$, i.e., for a generator $x \in H^2(M; \mathbb{Z})$, $$p(M) = (1+x^2)^{n+1}.$$
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The Petrie conjecture has not been confirmed in general (no counterexample is know at the moment). However, if $\dim M \leq 8$, the total Pontrjagin class of $M$ agrees with that of $\CP^n$
The Petrie conjecture has not been confirmed in general (no counterexample is know at the moment). However, if $\dim M \leq 8$, the total Pontrjagin class of $M$ agrees with that of $\CP^n$
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[[Category:Problems]]
[[Category:Problems]]
[[Category:Group actions on manifolds]]
[[Category:Group actions on manifolds]]
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Revision as of 23:43, 30 November 2010

This page has not been refereed. The information given here might be incomplete or provisional.

Introduction

The Petrie conjecture was formulated in the following context: suppose that a Lie group G acts smoothly on a closed smooth manifold
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, what constraints does this place on the topology of
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in general and on the Pontrjagin classes of
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in particular. Petrie restricted his attention to smooth actions of the Lie group S^1 [Petrie1972] (or more generally, the torus T^k for k \geq 1 [Petrie1973]) on closed smooth manifolds
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which are homotopy equivalent to \CP^n. He has formulated the following conjecture.

Conjecture 0.1 [Petrie1972].

Suppose that
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is a closed smooth manifold homotopy equivalent to \CP^n and that S^1 acts smoothly and non-trivially on
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. Then the total Pontrjagin class p(M) of
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agrees with that of \CP^n, i.e., for a generator x \in H^2(M; \mathbb{Z}),
\displaystyle p(M) = (1+x^2)^{n+1}.
The Petrie conjecture has not been confirmed in general (no counterexample is know at the moment). However, if \dim M \leq 8, the total Pontrjagin class of
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agrees with that of \CP^n

by the work of [Dejter1976] and [James1978].

[Iberkleid1978], [Tsukada&Washiyama1979], [Dessai2002],[Dessai&Wilking2004], and [Tolman2010].

References

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