Torus actions of complexity one and their local properties

Abstract: We consider an effective action of a compact (n-1)-torus on a smooth 2n-manifold with isolated fixed points. We prove that under certain conditions the orbit space is a closed topological manifold. In particular, this holds for certain torus actions with disconnected stabilizers. There is a filtration of the orbit manifold by orbit dimensions. The subset of orbits of dimensions less than n-1 has a specific topology which we axiomatize in the notion of a sponge. In many cases the original manifold can be recovered from its orbit manifold, the sponge, and the weights of tangent representations at fixed points.