Strongly minimal \(PD_4\)-complexes (Q1014535)

It remains an open problem to give a homotopy classification of closed 4-manifolds, or more generally \(PD_4\)-complexes, in terms of standard invariants such as the fundamental group, characteristic classes and homotopy intersection pairings. The class of groups of cohomological dimension at most 2 is interesting in geometric topology since it includes all surface groups, knot groups and the groups of many other bounded 3-manifolds. The author showed in his previous work that this case can largely be reduced to the study of ``strongly minimal'' \(PD_4\)-complexes \(Z\), which have trivial intersection pairing on \(\pi_2(Z)\). If \(X\) is a \(PD_4\)-complex with fundamental group \(\pi\), \(k_1(X)=0\) and there is a 2-connected degree 1 map \(p:X\to Z\), where \(Z\) is strongly minimal, then the homotopy type of \(X\) is determined by \(Z\) and the intersection pairing \(\lambda_X\) on the ``surgery kernel'' \(K_2(p)=\text{Ker} (\pi_2 (p))\), which is a finitely generated projective left \(\mathbb{Z}[\pi]\)-module. In the present paper, the author considers the homotopy types of \(PD_4\)-complexes \(X\) with fundamental group \(\pi\) such that c.d. \(\pi=2\) and \(\pi\) has one end. Let \(\beta=\beta_2(\pi;\mathbb{F}_2)\) and \(w=w_1(X)\). The main result is that (modulo two technical conditions on the pair \((\pi,w))\) there are at most \(2^\beta\) orbits of \(k\)-invariants determining strongly minimal complexes. Then the homotopy type of a \(PD_4\)-complex \(X\) with \(\pi\) a \(PD_2\)-group is determined by \(\pi,w,\lambda_X\) and the \(\nu_2\)-type of \(X\). This result also implies that Fox's 2-knot with metabelian group is determined, up to homeomorphism, by its group. Editor's remark: according to the author's erratum [ibid. 159, 933 (2012; Zbl 1237.57024)] Theorem 4 is wrong.