An homology 4-sphere group with negative deficiency. (Q1419577)

A homology \(n\)-sphere is a closed \(n\)-manifold which has the same integral homology as an \(n\)-dimensional sphere. If \(G\) is the fundamental group of a homology \(n\)-sphere, then necessarily \(G\) is finitely presented, perfect (\(H_1(G,{\mathbb Z})=0\)), and superperfect (perfect and \(H_2(G,{\mathbb Z})=0\)). For dimensions \(n\geq 5\), \textit{M. A. Kervaire} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 144, 67--72 (1969; Zbl 0187.20401)] showed that these necessary conditions are sufficient, thus giving a characterization of homology \(n\)-sphere groups in high dimensions. This fails in dimension \(n=4\) (counterexamples are given by \textit{J.-C. Hausmann} and \textit{S. Weinberger} [Comment. Math. Helv. 60, 139--144 (1985; Zbl 0566.57011)], but Kervaire did show that any finitely presented, perfect group with deficiency zero is a homology \(4\)-sphere group. (The deficiency of a finitely presented group is the maximum over all finite presentations of \(g-r\), where \(g\) and \(r\) are the number of generators and relations, respectively, of a presentation.) This raises the question of whether these conditions are necessary ones for homology \(4\)-sphere groups. The author gives a counterexample to show that the answer to this is no. His example is constructed from \(M\#\Sigma\), where \(M\) is the result of performing surgery on the \(2\)-twist spin of the trefoil knot in \(S^4\), and \(\Sigma\) is a homology \(4\)-sphere with a given explicit presentation for its fundamental group. By performing surgery along a carefully chosen circle in \(M\#\Sigma\), a homology \(4\)-sphere \(P\) is obtained, and an argument from homological algebra shows that \(\pi_1(P)\) cannot have deficiency zero.