Cohomology of generalized Dold spaces

Abstract: Let $(X,J) $ be an almost complex manifold with a (smooth) involution $\sigma:X\to X$ such that fix($\sigma$) is non-empty. Assume that $\sigma$ is a complex conjugation, i.e, the differential of $\sigma$ anti-commutes with $J$. The space $P(m,X):=\mathbb{S}^m\times X/!\sim$ where $(v,x)\sim (-v,\sigma(x))$ was referred to as a generalized Dold manifold. The above definition admits an obvious generalization to a much wider class of spaces where $X, S$ are arbitrary topological spaces. The resulting space $P(S,X)$ will be called a generalized Dold space. When $S$ and $X$ are CW complexes satisfying certain natural requirements, we obtain a CW-structure on $P(S,X)$. Under certain further hypotheses, we determine the mod $2$ cohomology groups of $P(S,X)$. We determine the $\mathbb Z_2$-cohomology algebra when $X$ is (i) a torus manifold whose torus orbit space is a homology polytope, (ii) a complex flag manifold. One of the main tools is the Stiefel-Whitney class formula for vector bundles over $P(S,X)$ associated to $\sigma$-conjugate complex bundles over $X$ when the $S$ is a paracompact Hausdorff topological space, extending the validity of the formula, obtained earlier by Nath and Sankaran, in the case of generalized Dold manifolds.