On Poincaré four-complexes with free fundamental groups (Q1860640)

Let \(Y\) be a Poincaré 4-complex whose fundamental group is a free group of rank \(p\), i.e., \(\pi_1= \pi_1(Y)= *_p\mathbb{Z}\). Assume that \(Y\) is obtained from the 3-skeleton \(Y^{(3)}\) of \(Y\) by attaching only one 4-cell, i.e., \(Y= Y^{(3)}\cup_\varphi D^4\), where \(\varphi: \mathbb{S}^3\to Y^{(3)}\) is the attaching map. Let \(X\) be a closed connected oriented PL 4-manifold with \(\pi_1= \pi_1(X)= *_p\mathbb{Z}\). Then \(X^{(3)}\) is homotopy equivalent to the wedge \(\bigvee_p(\mathbb{S}^1\vee \mathbb{S}^3)\vee(\bigvee_k\mathbb{S}^2)\), and \(\pi_2(X)= H_2(X;\Lambda)\) is \(\Lambda\)-free of rank \(k\), where \(\Lambda= \mathbb{Z}[\pi_1]\) denotes the integral group ring of \(\pi_1\) (see \textit{T. Matumoto} and \textit{A. Katanaga} [ibid. 25, 367-370 (1995; Zbl 0921.57007)]). In this nice paper, the authors show that there is a bijective correspondence between the homotopy equivalence classes of Poincaré 4-complexes \(Y\) with \(Y^{(4)}\cong X^{(3)}\) and the invertible Hermitian matrices of type \(k\) over \(\Lambda\). Some applications on special Hermitian forms and their realization by 4-manifolds complete the paper.