Contents Online
Asian Journal of Mathematics
Volume 27 (2023)
Number 1
Simply and tangentially homotopy equivalent but non-homeomorphic homogeneous manifolds
Pages: 57 – 76
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4310/AJM.2023.v27.n1.a2
Author
Abstract
For each odd integer $r$ greater than one and not divisible by three we give explicit examples of infinite families of simply and tangentially homotopy equivalent but pairwise nonhomeomorphic $5$-dimensional closed homogeneous spaces with fundamental group isomorphic to $\mathbb{Z}/r$. As an application we construct the first examples of manifolds which possess infinitely many metrics of nonnegative sectional curvature with pairwise non-homeomorphic homogeneous souls of codimension three with trivial normal bundle, such that their curvatures and the diameters of the souls are uniformly bounded. As a by-product, if $L$ is a smooth and closed manifold homotopy equivalent to the standard $3$-dimensional lens space then the moduli space of complete smooth metrics of nonnegative sectional curvature on $L \times S^2 \times \mathbb{R}$ has infinitely many components. These manifolds are the first examples of manifolds fulfilling such geometric conditions and they serve as solutions to a problem posed by I. Belegradek, S. Kwasik and R. Schultz.
Keywords
homogeneous manifolds, homotopy classification, surgery, non-negative curvature, pinching, souls
2010 Mathematics Subject Classification
53C21, 53C30, 57R20, 57R22, 57R55
Received 24 April 2021
Accepted 7 December 2022
Published 16 June 2023