Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 April 2009
A general process for the desingularization of smooth actions of compact Lie groups is described. If G is a compact Lie group, it is shown that there is naturally associated to any compact G manifold M a compact G × (Z/2)p manifold on which G acts principally. Here Z/2 denotes the cyclic group of order two and p + 1 is the number of orbit types of the G action on M.