Genus-minimal crystallizations of PL 4-manifolds (Q1702148)

From the author's summary: ``For \(d\geq 2\), the regular genus of a closed connected PL \(d\)-manifold \(M\) is the least genus (resp., half of genus) of an orientable (resp., a non-orientable) surface into which a crystallization of \(M\) imbeds regularly. The regular genus of every orientable surface equals its genus, and the regular genus of every 3-manifold equals its Heegaard genus. For every closed connected PL 4-manifold \(M\), it is known that its regular genus \(\mathcal G(M)\) is at least \(2 \chi (M)+5m-4\), where \(m\) is the rank of the fundamental group of \(M\). In this article, we introduce the concept of ``weak semi-simple crystallization'' for every closed connected PL 4-manifold \(M\), and prove that \(\mathcal G(M)=2\chi(M)+5m-4\) if and only if \(M\) admits a weak semi-simple crystallization. We then show that the PL invariant regular genus is additive under the connected sum within the class of all PL 4-manifolds admitting a weak semi-simple crystallization.'' For simply connected 4-manifolds this leads to \({\mathcal G}(M)= 2b_2(M)\), a perfect analogue of \({\mathcal G}(M)= {b_1(M)\over 2}\) for orientable surfaces. The author conjectures that every closed 4-manifold admits a weak semi-simple crystallization. For all standard spaces this has been verified.