On the classification of certain piecewise linear and differentiable manifolds in dimension eight and automorphisms of \(\#_{i=1}^b(S^2\times S^5)\). (Q1419578)

This paper deals with closed, simply connected PL or smooth \(8\)-manifolds having the property that all odd degree integral cohomology groups vanish. Such manifolds are called \textit{E-manifolds}. If \(b_i\) denotes the \(i\)-th Betti number, then, in particular, the author shows that E-manifolds with \(b_2=b\) and \(b_4=0\) may be classified up to isomorphy in terms of certain geometrically defined groups. An example due to J.-C. Hausmann is also given which shows that the standard invariants such as cup product, intersection form and first Pontryagin class, do not suffice to classify spin \(8\)-dimensional E-manifolds.