Positively Curved Manifolds with Almost Maximal Symmetry Rank

The symmetry rank of a Riemannian manifold is the rank of the isometry group. We determine precisely which closed simply connected 5-manifolds admit positively curved metrics with (almost maximal) symmetry rank two. We also determine the precise Euler characteristic and the fundamental groups of all closed positively curved n-manifolds with almost maximal symmetry rank (n–1)/2] (n 6, 7).