Equivariant Bundles and Isotropy Representations

Abstract

We introduce a new construction, the isotropy groupoid, to organize the orbit data for split $Γ$-spaces. We show that equivariant principal $G$-bundles over split $Γ$-CW complexes $X$ can be effectively classified by means of representations of their isotropy groupoids. For instance, if the quotient complex $A=Γ\backslash X$ is a graph, with all edge stabilizers toral subgroups of $Γ$, we obtain a purely combinatorial classification of bundles with structural group $G$ a compact connected Lie group. If $G$ is abelian, our approach gives combinatorial and geometric descriptions of some results of Lashof-May-Segal and Goresky-Kottwitz-MacPherson.