A generalization of the Conner conjecture and topology of Stein spaces dominated by \(\mathbb C^ n\) (Q1089135)

The author studies the topology of a normal Stein space \(V\) (of complex dimension \(n\)) which is the image of a (topologically) contractible normal Stein space \(W\) under a proper analytic map \(f\). Among the results proven there are: \(V\) is \(\mathbb Q\) acyclic and \(\mathbb Z_ p\) acyclic for all those primes \(p\) which are coprime to \(\deg f\). If \(V\) is the holomorphy type of a CW complex it follows that \(V\) is simply connected and its analytic Picard group is 0, \(H^ n(V,\mathbb Z)=0.\) An example which shows that the converse of the first statement above does not hold is given.