This is an account of the theory of certain types of compact transformation groups, namely those that are susceptible to study using ordinary cohomology theory and rational homotopy theory, which in practice means the torus groups and elementary abelian p-groups. The efforts of many mathematicians have combined to bring a depth of understanding to this area. However to make it reasonably accessible to a wide audience, the authors have streamlined the presentation, referring the reader to the literature for purely technical results and working in a simplified setting where possible. In this way the reader with a relatively modest background in algebraic topology and homology theory can penetrate rather deeply into the subject, whilst the book at the same time makes a useful reference for the more specialised reader.

Presents an understanding of the sorts of problems one studies in group actions and the methods used to study such problems. This book features articles based upon lectures at the 1983 AMS-IMS-SIAM Joint Summer Research Conference, Group Actions on Manifolds, held at the University of Colorado.

Historically, applications of algebraic topology to the study of topological transformation groups were originated in the work of L. E. 1. Brouwer on periodic transformations and, a little later, in the beautiful fixed point theorem ofP. A. Smith for prime periodic maps on homology spheres. Upon comparing the fixed point theorem of Smith with its predecessors, the fixed point theorems of Brouwer and Lefschetz, one finds that it is possible, at least for the case of homology spheres, to upgrade the conclusion of mere existence (or non-existence) to the actual determination of the homology type of the fixed point set, if the map is assumed to be prime periodic. The pioneer result of P. A. Smith clearly suggests a fruitful general direction of studying topological transformation groups in the framework of algebraic topology. Naturally, the immediate problems following the Smith fixed point theorem are to generalize it both in the direction of replacing the homology spheres by spaces of more general topological types and in the direction of replacing the group tl by more general compact groups.

The papers in this collection, all fully refereed, original papers, reflect many aspects of recent significant advances in homotopy theory and group cohomology. From the Contents: A. Adem: On the geometry and cohomology of finite simple groups.- D.J. Benson: Resolutions and Poincar duality for finite groups.- C. Broto and S. Zarati: On sub-A*-algebras of H*V.- M.J. Hopkins, N.J. Kuhn, D.C. Ravenel: Morava K-theories of classifying spaces and generalized characters for finite groups.- K. Ishiguro: Classifying spaces of compact simple lie groups and p-tori.- A.T. Lundell: Concise tables of James numbers and some homotopyof classical Lie groups and associated homogeneous spaces.- J.R. Martino: Anexample of a stable splitting: the classifying space of the 4-dim unipotent group.- J.E. McClure, L. Smith: On the homotopy uniqueness of BU(2) at the prime 2.- G. Mislin: Cohomologically central elements and fusion in groups.

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