Handle decompositions of simply connected five-manifolds. I (Q1339650)

The paper under review presents the basic results necessary for proving the assertion that the Barden handle decomposition of a closed simply connected smooth or PL 5-manifold \(M\) is geometrically diagonal: All incidence indices of 2- and 3-handles of the Barden handle decomposition of \(M\) are geometrically diagonal. The assertion is proven in the second part of this paper (see the review below). Using the techniques of surgery, the present paper describes properties of the elementary 4-manifolds (Proposition 1) and the standard 5-manifolds (Proposition 2), as well as it describes properties of a special handle decomposition of a 5-manifold (Proposition 3). In particular, it follows that a simply connected 5-dimensional cobordism with simply connected ends admits the minimal special handle decomposition (Corollary 2).