Steenrod squares on conjugation spaces

Abstract

We prove that the coefficients of the so-called conjugation equation for conjugation spaces in the sense of Hausmann-Holm-Puppe are completely determined by Steenrod squares. This generalises a result of V.A. Krasnov for certain complex algebraic varieties. It also leads to a generalisation of a formula given by Borel and Haefliger, thereby largely answering an old question of theirs in the affirmative.