The equivariant Spivak normal bundle and equivariant surgery for compact Lie groups

Abstract

We generalize the results of a previous paper of ours to compact Lie groups. Using a recently developed ordinary equivariant homology and cohomology, we define equivariant Poincare complexes with the properties that (1) every compact G-manifold is an equivariant Poincare complex, (2) every finite equivariant Poincare complex (with some mild additional hypotheses) has an equivariant spherical Spivak normal fibration, and (3) the Pi-Pi Theorem holds for equivariant Poincare pairs under suitable gap hypotheses. The nice behavior of the ordinary equivariant homology and cohomology theories allows us to follow Wall's original line of argument closely.