The Euler characteristic of a nonpositively curved, piecewise Euclidean manifold (Q1918389)

A conjecture of H. Hopf states that if \(M^{2n}\) is a closed, Riemannian manifold of nonpositive sectional curvature, then its Euler characteristic \(\chi(M^{2n})\) should satisfy \((-1)^n\chi(M^{2n})\geq 0\). In the paper under review, the authors investigate the conjecture in the context of piecewise Euclidean manifolds having ``nonpositive curvature'' in the sense of Gromov's ``CAT(0) inequality'' [see \textit{M. Gromov}, Publ. Math. Sci. Res. Inst. 8, 75-263 (1987; Zbl 0634.20015)]. In this context, the conjecture can be reduced to a local version which predicts the sign of a ``local Euler characteristic'' at each vertex. In the case of a manifold with cubical cell structure, the local version is a purely combinatorial statement which can be shown to hold under appropriate conditions.