Topological groupoids with involution and real algebraic stacks

Abstract

To a topological groupoid endowed with an involution, we associate a topological groupoid of fixed points, generalizing the fixed-point subspace of a topological space with involution. We prove that when the topological groupoid with involution arises from a Deligne-Mumford stack over $\mathbb{R}$, this fixed locus coincides with the real locus of the stack. This provides a topological framework to study real algebraic stacks, and in particular real moduli spaces. Finally, we propose a Smith-Thom type conjecture in this setting, generalizing the Smith-Thom inequality for topological spaces endowed with an involution.

31 pages, final version, to appear in Manuscripta Mathematica