Contact structures on \((n-1)\)-connected \((2n+1)\)-manifolds (Q1318502)

This paper extends the classical result of Lutz and Martinet on the existence of contact structures on (closed, orientable) 3-manifolds and the author's corresponding result on simply-connected 5-manifolds [Mathematika 38, No. 2, 303--311 (1991; Zbl 0767.53025)] to all \((n-1)\)-connected \((2n+1)\)-manifolds, which were classified by Wall. Using Eliashberg's contact surgery, it is shown that if \(M\) is an \((n-1)\)-connected \((2n+1)\)-manifold which admits an almost contact structure (a reduction of the structure group to \(U(n)\times 1)\), then \(M\) admits a contact structure, at least after forming the connected sum with a homotopy sphere. If \(n\) is even, there is a contact structure in every homotopy class of almost contact structures. The obstructions to an almost contact structure are expressed in terms of the tangential invariants in Wall's classification.