Metrics of positive Ricci curvature on the connected sums of products with arbitrarily many spheres (Q2212343)

The main result of the article is the following theorem: Given any sequence \[B_i^n\in\{S^k,\mathbb{C}P^k,\mathbb{H}P^k,\mathbb{O}P^2 \mid k\ge 2\},\] let \(X_i^N\) be the total space of iterated linear sphere bundles over \(B^n_i\) with fibers of dimension at least 3, then there is a Ricci-positive metric on the space \((S^n/G)\#(\#_i X_i^N)\), where \(G\) is any cyclic group acting freely by diffeomorphisms on \(S^N\). As a corollary, the connected sum of products of arbitrarily many spheres will admit a Ricci positive metric provided the dimensions of all but one of the spheres in each summand are at least 3. This improves a result of \textit{D.J. Wraith} [Ann. Global Anal. Geom. 32, No. 4, 343--360 (2007; Zbl 1132.53018)], where it was shown that Ricci positive metrics exist on \(\#_i(S^{n_i}\times S^{m_i})\) provided \(n_i, m_i\ge 3\).