Van Kampen's embedding obstruction for discrete groups (Q1401448)

In [Komplexe in Euclidischen Räumen, Abh. Math. Semin. Hamb. Univ. 9, 72--78, 152--153 (1932; Zbl 0005.02604)] \textit{E. R. van Kampen} developed an obstruction theory for embeddings of finite \(n\)-complexes into \(\mathbb{R}^{2n}\), this theory is briefly reviewed here. The authors remove dimension restrictions, considering cohomological obstruction to embedding a complex into \(\mathbb{R}^m\) and talking about \(m\)-obstructor complexes. The obstruction dimension \(\text{obdim\,}\Gamma\) of a discrete group \(\Gamma\) is introduced. The main result of this paper is Theorem 1. If \(\text{obdim\,}\Gamma\geq m\) then \(\Gamma\) cannot act properly discontinuously on a contractible manifold of dimension \(< m\). In particular, \(\text{obdim\,}F^n_2= 2n\) (\(F_2\) is the free group of rank 2), since the boundary of \(F^n_2\) is the \(n\)-fold join of Cantor sets and contains the complex considered by van Kampen. Thus, \(F^n_2\) cannot act properly discontinuously on \(\mathbb{R}^{2n-1}\). In the paper \textit{M. Bestvina} and \textit{M. Feighn} [Invent. Math. 150, 237--256 (2002; Zbl 1041.57015)] there is an application as well as there are other applications to geometric topology, e.g., to the celebrated theorems of Whitney that every \(m\)-manifold can be embedded in \(\mathbb{R}^{2n}\) and immersed (for \(n> 1\)) into \(\mathbb{R}^{2n-1}\). A Corollary: Let \(X= X_1\times\cdots\times X_n\) be the \(n\)-fold product of connected graphs \(X_i\) with the first Betti number 2. Then \(X\) does not immerse up to homotopy into \(\mathbb{R}^{2n-1}\).