A note on the topology of irreducible \(\mathbf{SO}(3)\)-manifolds (Q1709054): Difference between revisions

Let $M$ be a smooth connected oriented $5$-dimensional manifold. $M$ is called an irreducible $\mathrm{SO}(3)$-manifold if its tangent bundle $\tau M$ is isomorphic to trace-zero symmetric endomorphisms of a vector bundle of rank $3$. Equivalently, denoting by $\rho:\mathrm{SO}(3)\to \mathrm{SO}(5)$ the unique irreducible $5$-dimensional representation of $\mathrm{SO}(3)$, $M$ is an irreducible $\mathrm{SO}(3)$-manifold if the structure group of $\tau M$ admits a reduction to $\rho(\mathrm{SO}(3))\subset \mathrm{SO}(5)$. The notion of an irreducible $\mathrm{SO}(3)$-structure on $M$ originated in the work of \textit{T. Friedrich} [in: The proceedings of the 22nd winter school ``Geometry and physics'', Srní, Czech Republic, January 12--19, 2002. Palermo: Circolo Matemàtico di Palermo. 99--113 (2003; Zbl 1079.53041)]. Note that $\tau M$ admits a reduction of its structure group to the standard imbedding $\mathrm{SO}(3)\subset \mathrm{SO}(5)$ if and only if $M$ admits an everywhere linearly independent $2$-field. The author proves the following in Theorem 1.4 where $M$ is as above: (a) Suppose that $M$ is a spin manifold. Then $M$ is an irreducible $\mathrm{SO}(3)$-manifold if and only if (i) the Stiefel-Whitney class $w_4(M)=0$ and the Pontrjagin class $p_1(M)\in H^4(M;\mathbb Z)$ is divisible by $5$, and, (ii) $\hat \chi(M)=0$. (b) Suppose that $w_2(M)\ne 0$ and that $H^4(M;\mathbb Z)$ has no element of order $4$. Then $M$ is an irreducible $\mathrm{SO}(3)$-manifold if and only if $w_4(M)=0$ and $p_1(M)$ is divisible by $5$. Here $\hat\chi(X)$ is the semicharacteristic $\dim_{0\le j\le 2k}H^j(X;\mathbb Z_2) \bmod 2$ where $X$ is a $4k+1$ dimensional closed connected manifold. The necessity of the vanishing of $w_4(M)$ and the divisibility condition on $p_1(M)$ for $M$ to admit an irreducible $\mathrm{SO}(3)$-structure have been obtained earlier by \textit{I. Agricola} et al. [Ann. Global Anal. Geom. 40, No. 1, 67--84 (2011; Zbl 1218.53047)]. For a closed connected $5$-dimensional spin manifold, vanishing of the semicharacteristic is equivalent to the existence of an everywhere linearly independent $2$-field by a well-known result of \textit{E. Thomas} [Math. Z. 103, 85--93 (1968; Zbl 0162.55403)]. Thus: Corollary 1.6: Let $M$ be a spin manifold. Then $M$ is an irreducible $\mathrm{SO}(3)$-manifold if and only if $M$ admits an everywhere linearly independent $2$-field and $p_1(M)$ is divisible by $5$. The author constructs plenty of irreducible $\mathrm{SO}(3)$-manifolds $M$. One source of examples is the following result: Proposition 1.9: A connected sum of an odd number of irreducible $\mathrm{SO}(3)$-manifolds which are spin is an irreducible $\mathrm{SO}(3)$-manifold.