Almost quaternionic structures on eight-manifolds (Q1392656)

Let \(\xi\) be an oriented real vector bundle, \(w_m (\xi)\) [resp. \(p_m (\xi)]\) its \(m\)th Stiefel-Whitney (resp. Pontryagin) class and \(e(\xi)\) its Euler class. If \(\xi\) is of dimension \(4n\), one says that \(\xi\) has an \(\text{Sp} (n). \text{Sp} (1)\)-structure if and only if its structure group \(\text{SO} (4n)\) can be reduced to the group \(\text{Sp} (n). \text{Sp} (1)= \text{Sp} (n) \times \text{Sp} (1)/ \{(1,1), (-1,-1)\}\). In the particular case of the tangent bundle of a smooth oriented manifold, one gets the concept of an almost quaternionic structure. Using previous results [the authors, Publ. Mat., Barc. 41, No. 2, 383-401 (1997; Zbl 0896.57015)] as well as results of \textit{M. C. Crabb} and \textit{B. Steer} [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc., III. Ser. 30, 1-39 (1975; Zbl 0294.57015)], the authors obtain sufficiency conditions for the existence of an \(\text{Sp} (2). \text{Sp} (1)\)-structure in oriented 8-dimensional vector bundles over closed connected smooth spin 8-manifolds in terms of characteristic classes and cohomology of the base manifold. In some cases these are also necessary conditions. For example, if \(M\) is an oriented closed connected smooth manifold of dimension 8 such that \(w_2 (M)=0\), \(w_6(M) =0 \), \(4p_2(M) -p^2_1(M) -8(M) =0\), \(\{p^2_1(M) +4e(M)\} [M] \equiv 0\bmod 16\), then \(M\) has an almost quaternionic structure. Several examples are considered. Analogous results for the almost complex structure in dimensions 8 and 10 were obtained by \textit{T. Heaps} [Topology 9, 111-119 (1970; Zbl 0187.20405)] and \textit{E. Thomas} [Am. J. Math. 89, 887-908 (1967; Zbl 0174.54802)]. [Reviewer's remark: The sections of the paper are not numbered consecutively, namely Section 8, p. 185 (resp. 9, p. 187) should be Section 7 (resp. 8), as it appears in the Introduction. Thus, Theorem 8.1 (resp. Corollary 8.3) is in fact Theorem 7.1 (resp. Corollary 7.3), etc.].