Fields of 2-planes on compact simply-connected smooth 4-manifolds (Q1093212)

We know a result of \textit{M. F. Atiyah} [Arbeitsgemeinschaft Forsch. Nordrhein-Westfalen, Heft 200, 26 S. (1970; Zbl 0193.523), Theorem 1.1] concerning the fields of 2-planes on manifolds stating that if a compact oriented smooth manifold X of dimension 4q admits a nonsingular field of oriented tangent 2-planes, then the Euler characteristic \(\chi\) [X] and the Hirzebruch index \(\tau\) [X] of X satisfy the following \[ (1)\quad \chi [X]\equiv 0\quad mod 2,\quad \chi [X]\equiv \tau [X]\quad mod 4\quad. \] The restrictions on \(\chi\) [X] and \(\tau\) [X] given in (1) represent a necessary condition for the existence of a field of 2-planes on X. \textit{F. Hirzebruch} and \textit{H. Hopf} [Math. Ann. 136, 156-172 (1958; Zbl 0088.394)] obtained a condition for a compact smooth oriented 4- manifold to admit a nonsingular field of oriented 2-planes. Using the result of Hirzebruch and Hopf, we can see that if X is a compact smooth oriented 4-manifold with a further restriction, i.e., simply connected, then the condition (1) is also sufficient for X to admit a nonsingular field of oriented tangent 2-planes. The proof is an application of the famous results on compact oriented simply connected 4-manifolds by \textit{M. H. Freedman} [J. Differ. Geom. 17, 357-453 (1982; Zbl 0528.57011)] and \textit{S. K. Donaldson} [ibid. 18, 279-315 (1983; Zbl 0507.57010)]. The results of this paper are as follows: (a) if the intersection form \(\mu\) of X is of type I, then X admits a nonsingular field of oriented tangent 2-planes if and only if \(\chi\) [X]\(\equiv 0\) mod 2 and \(\chi\) [X]\(\equiv \tau [X]\) mod 4, and (b) if the intersection form \(\mu\) of X is of type II, then X admits a nonsingular field of oriented tangent 2-planes if and only if \(\chi\) [X]\(\equiv \tau [X]\) mod 4. (Note that in case (b) the Euler characteristic \(\chi\) is always even.) This paper also discusses necessary and sufficient conditions for a compact simply connected oriented 4-manifold to admit an almost complex structure.