Whitehead torsion of inertial \(h\)-cobordisms (Q1800231)

The present article represents a noteworthy increment in the study of \(h\)-cobordism \textit{as an equivalence relation} on the set of homeomorphism classes of closed manifolds. The primary discourse is about a filtration by four subsets of the Whitehead group \(\mathrm{Wh}(M)\) of any closed manifold \(M\). The most important of these subsets is the subgroup \(SI(M)\), which was introduced by the authors in [Bull. Lond. Math. Soc. 47, No. 4, 617--630 (2015; Zbl 1342.57020)]. This subset consists of the Whitehead torsions \(\tau(W \twoheadrightarrow M)\) of those \(h\)-cobordisms \((W;M,N)\) such that the canonical homotopy class of homotopy equivalence \(N \hookrightarrow W \twoheadrightarrow M\) is represented by a homeomorphism. Here, the Whitehead torsion of a homeomorphism is zero by a celebrated theorem of \textit{T. A. Chapman} [Am. J. Math. 96, 488--497 (1974; Zbl 0358.57004)]. The main results are Theorems 2.4, 2.5, 2.6. They concern the subgroup \(SI(M)\) when the fundamental group \(\pi_1(M)\) is \textit{finite;} the first theorem is about triviality of \(SI(M)\), and the latter two are about nontriviality. This paper surveys the literature and expands the developments of \textit{B. Jahren} and \textit{S. Kwasik} [Bull. Lond. Math. Soc. 47, No. 4, 617--630 (2015; Zbl 1342.57020)] and of the reviewer [Indiana Univ. Math. J. 66, No. 5, 1453--1482 (2017; Zbl 1382.57016)].