Compact contractible \(n\)-manifolds have arc spines \((n\geq 5)\) (Q1894907)

The following two theorems were motivated by questions about the existence of disjoint spines in compact contractible manifolds. Theorem 1. Every compact contractible \(n\)-manifold \((n\geq 5)\) is the union of two \(n\)-balls along a contractible \((n-1)\)-dimensional submanifold of their boundaries. A compactum \(X\) is a spine of a compact manifold \(M\) if \(M\) is homeomorphic to the mapping cylinder of a map from \(\partial M\) to \(X\). Theorem 2. Every compact contractible \(n\)-manifold \((n\geq 5)\) has a wild arc spine. Also a new proof is given that for \(n\geq 6\), every homology \((n-1)\)- sphere bounds a compact contractible \(n\)-manifold. The implications of arc spines for compact contractible manifolds of dimensions 3 and 4 are discussed in section 5. The questions about the existence of disjoint spines in compact contractible manifolds which motivated the preceding theorems are stated in section 6.