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.

Let X be a "nice" space with an action of a torus T. We consider the Atiyah-Bredon sequence of equivariant cohomology modules arising from the filtration of X by orbit dimension. We show that a front piece of this sequence is exact if and only if the H^*(BT)-module H_T^*(X) is a certain syzygy. Moreover, we express the cohomology of that sequence as an Ext module involving a suitably defined equivariant homology of X. One consequence is that the GKM method for computing equivariant cohomology applies to a Poincare duality space if and only if the equivariant Poincare pairing is perfect.Comment: 23 pages. The former Section 6 has been substantially expanded and is now a separate paper, see arXiv:1303.1146. Several minor change

There are classical examples of spaces X with an involution τ whose mod2-comhomology ring resembles that of their fixed point set X τ : there is a ring isomorphism κ :. Such examples include complex Grassmannians, toric manifolds, polygon spaces. In this paper, we show that the ring isomorphism κ is part of an interesting structure in equivariant cohomology called an H * -frame. An H * -frame, if it exists, is natural and unique. A space with involution admitting an H * -frame is called a conjugation space. Many examples of conjugation spaces are constructed, for instance by successive adjunctions of cells homeomorphic to a disk in C k with the complex conjugation. A compact symplectic manifold, with an anti-symplectic involution compatible with a Hamiltonian action of a torus T , is a conjugation space, provided X T is itself a conjugation space. This includes the co-adjoint orbits of any semi-simple compact Lie group, equipped with the Chevalley involution. We also study conjugateequivariant complex vector bundles ("real bundles" in the sense of Atiyah) over a conjugation space and show that the isomorphism κ maps the Chern classes onto the Stiefel-Whitney classes of the fixed bundle.

Using methods applied by Atiyah in equivariant K-theory, Bredon obtained exact sequences for the relative cohomologies (with rational coefficients) of the equivariant skeletons of (sufficiently nice) T-spaces, T=(S^1)^n, with free equivariant cohomology over the cohomology of BT. Here we characterise those finite T-CW complexes with connected isotropy groups for which an analogous result holds with integral coefficients.Comment: similar main result as in our preprint math.AT/0307112, but the proof is more elementary; 10 pages; final versio

Abstract. We prove a Poincaré-Alexander-Lefschetz duality theorem for rational torus-equivariant cohomology and rational homology manifolds. We allow non-compact and non-orientable spaces. We use this to deduce certain short exact sequences in equivariant cohomology, originally due to Duflot in the differentiable case, from similar, but more general short exact sequences in equivariant homology. A crucial role is played by the Cohen-Macaulayness of relative equivariant cohomology modules arising from the orbit filtration.