The relationship of generalized manifolds to Poincaré duality complexes and topological manifolds (Q1709059)

This paper addresses the issue that while a generalized \(n\)-manifold, that is a space \(X\) that is a \(n\)-dimensional separable ENR, and for every \(x \in X\), \(H_{*}(X, X \setminus \{x\}, {\mathbb Z}) \cong H_{*}({\mathbb R}^{n} , {\mathbb R}^{n} \setminus \{ 0 \}, {\mathbb Z})\), satisfies Poincaré duality for \({\mathbb Z}\) coefficients, the space is not in general a complex. The authors introduce the notion of a \(\Lambda\)-PD complex structure which allows the construction of a chain complex for the cohomology and cohomology of a neighbourhood \(N\) of \(X\) in Euclidean space. Not all \(\Lambda\)-PD complexes are generalized manifolds so the authors introduce controlled Poincaré duality complexes as a bridge between simple \(\Lambda\)-PD complexes and generalized manifolds and show how in dimension greater than 5 one can recognize generalized manifolds within this class.