Three-dimensional surgery theory, UNil-groups and the Borel conjecture. (Q1398216)

This paper considers a three-dimensional analogue to the Sullivan-Wall exact sequence relating the surgery groups, group of normal invariants and the structure set in dimensions over four. For \(M\) a 3-manifold the surgery obstruction map can be taken to be a map \[ \theta(M): H_1(M; \mathbb{Z}/2)\to L_3(\pi_1(M), \omega_M), \] where \(L_3(\pi_1(M),\omega_M)\) is the surgery group and \(\omega_M: \pi_1(M)\to \mathbb{Z}/2\) is the orientation homomorphism in the nonorientable case. It is shown that if \(M\) is a compact, connected, orientable 3-manifold the surgery map is a split monomorphism. For an arbitrary compact connected 3-manifold it is an injection if and only if \(M\) does not contain a two-sided \(\mathbb{R}\mathbb{P}^2\). As a corollary, if \(M^3\) is a compact, aspherical manifold, the surgery map is a monomorphism (Novikov conjecture in dimension 3). As applications, sufficient conditions are given for Cappell's unitary nilpotent groups \(\text{UNil}_*(\Phi)\) to vanish and a possible path to constructing a counterexample to the Borel conjecture.