Abstract:
We consider (non-necessarily free) actions of subgroups $H\subset \mathbb Z_2^m$ on the real moment-angle manifold $\mathbb R\mathcal{Z}_P$ corresponding to a simple convex $n$ polytope $P$ with $m$ facets. The criterion when the orbit space $\mathbb R\mathcal{Z}_P/H$ is a topological manifold (perhaps with a boundary) can be extracted from results by M.A. Mikhailova and C. Lange.
For any dimension $n$ we construct series of manifolds $\mathbb R\mathcal{Z}_P/H$ homeomorphic to $S^n$ and series of manifolds $M^n=\mathbb R\mathcal{Z}_P/H$ admitting a hyperelliptic involution $\tau\in\mathbb Z_2^m/H$, that is an involution $\tau$
such that $M^n/\langle\tau\rangle$ is homeomorphic to $S^n$. For any simple $3$-polytope $P$ we classify all subgroups $H\subset\mathbb Z_2^m$ such that $\mathbb R\mathcal{Z}_P/H$ is homeomorphic to $S^3$. For any simple $3$-polytope $P$ and any subgroup $H\subset\mathbb Z_2^m$ we classify all hyperelliptic involutions $\tau\in\mathbb Z_2^m/H$ acting on $\mathbb R\mathcal{Z}_P/H$. As a corollary we obtain that a $3$-dimensional small cover has $3$ hyperelliptic involutions in $\mathbb Z_2^3$
if and only if it is a rational homology $3$-sphere and if and only if it corresponds to a triple of Hamiltonian cycles such that each edge of the polytope belongs to exactly two of them.
Keywords:non-free action of a finite group, convex polytope, real moment-angle manifold, hyperelliptic manifold, rational homology sphere, Hamiltonian cycle.
Citation:
N. Yu. Erokhovets, “Manifolds realized as orbit spaces of non-free $\mathbb Z_2^k$-actions on real moment-angle manifolds”, Topology, Geometry, Combinatorics, and Mathematical Physics, Collected papers. Dedicated to Victor Matveevich Buchstaber on the occasion of his 80th birthday, Trudy Mat. Inst. Steklova, 326, Steklov Math. Inst., Moscow, 2024, 193–239