Let V and W be orthogonal representations of G with VG=WG={0}.
Let S(V) be the sphere of V and f:S(V)→W be a G-equivariant
mapping. We give an estimate for the dimension of the set Zf=f−1{0} in
terms of dimV and dimW, if G is the torus Tk, or the
p-torus Zpk. This extends the classical Bourgin-Yang theorem onto
this class of groups. Finally, we show that for any p-toral group G and a
G-map f:S(V)→W, with dimV=∞ and dimW<∞, we have dimZf=∞.Comment: Major revisio