Elimination of singularities of smooth mappings of 4-manifolds into 3-manifolds (Q1886716)

The author proves that for a closed orientable 4-manifold \(M^4\), there exists a smooth mapping into \(\mathbb R^3\) with only fold singularities if and only if for every orientable 3-manifold \(N^3\) every homotopy class of mappings of \(M^4\) into \(N^3\) contains a mapping with only fold singularities if and only if there exists a cohomology class \(x\in H^2(M^4;\mathbb Z)\) such that \(x\smile x\) is the first Pontrjagin class of \(M^4\). For a simply connected manifold \(M^4\) the author shows that \(M^4\) admits no mappings with only fold singularities into \(N^3\) if and only if \(M^4\) is homotopy equivalent to \(\mathbb CP^2\) or \(\mathbb CP^2\#\mathbb CP^2\). The author remarks that O. Saeki obtained similar results [\textit{O. Saeki}, Comment. Math. Helv. 78, 627--647 (2003; Zbl 1047.57017)] using different methods. In the present work the author makes use of the Ando-Èliashberg theorem in [\textit{Y. Ando}, J. Math. Soc. Japan 37, 471--487 (1985; Zbl 0581.58005), Erratum ibid. 39, 537 (1987; Zbl 0622.58003)]