TWISTED ACTIONS ON COHOMOLOGIES AND BIMODULES

Abstract

For closed subgroups L and R of a compact Lie group G, a left L-space X, and an L-equivariant continuous map $A:X\to G/R$ , we introduce the twisted action of the equivariant cohomology $H_R^{\bullet }(\mathrm {pt},\Bbbk )$ on the equivariant cohomology $H_L^{\bullet }(X,\Bbbk )$ . Considering this action as a right action, $H_L^{\bullet }(X,\Bbbk )$ becomes a bimodule together with the canonical left action of $H_L^{\bullet }(\mathrm {pt},\Bbbk )$ . Using this bimodule structure, we prove an equivariant version of the Künneth isomorphism. We apply this result to the computation of the equivariant cohomologies of Bott–Samelson varieties and to a geometric construction of the bimodule morphisms between them.