Hochzusammenhängende Mannigfaltigkeiten und ihre Ränder (Q2266487)

Let \(A_ m^{<k>}\) denote the bordism group of (k-1)-connected, almost- closed, smooth m-manifolds [as in \textit{C. T. C. Wall}, Topology 6, 273- 296 (1967; Zbl 0173.261)]. The bordism relation in question restricts to h-cobordism on boundaries, and so there is a well-defined homomorphism \(\partial: A_ m^{<k>}\to \theta_{m-1}\), where \(\theta_{m-1}\) is the Kervaire-Milnor group of homotopy spheres. The author studies the groups \(A_ m^{<k>}\) and the homomorphism \(\partial\) using stable homotopy theory, in particular the Adams spectral sequence. He notes that im \(\partial\) contains \(bP_ m\), the subgroup of \(\theta_{m-1}\) determined by spheres that bound parallelizable manifolds. In fact, he obtains a splitting \(A_ m^{<k>}=P_ m\oplus {\bar \Omega}_{k,m}\), with \(P_ m\) the mth surgery obstruction group and \({\bar \Omega}{}_{k,m}\) (the reviewer's notation) a certain quotient of the bordism group of (k-1)-connected m-manifolds with framed boundary. Under \(\partial\), \(P_ m\) maps to \(bP_ m\) in the expected way. The important fact about \({\bar \Omega}{}_{k,m}\) is that the author can construct a (2k-1)-connected spectrum A[k] such that \({\bar \Omega}{}_{k,m}=\pi_ mA[k]\). His Theorem A computes \(\pi_{2k+d}A[k]\) when \(k\geq 9\) and \(0\leq d\leq 5\). Further computations give conditions under which elements of im \(\partial\) belong to \(bP_{2k+d}\) (e.g., \(k\equiv 2 mod 8\), \(k\geq 11\), \(0\leq d\leq 3)\) and conditions under which signature or Kervaire invariants can be used to detect the triviality of elements of im \(\partial\). Finally, the author obtains a number of important results about inertia groups. For a smooth (m-1)-manifold N, the inertia group \(I(N)\subset \theta_{m-1}\) consists of all \([\Sigma^{m-1}]\) such that N{\#}\(\Sigma\) \({}^{m-1}\) is oriented-diffeomorphic to N. The author shows that if N is (k-1)- connected, then im \(\partial\) contains I(N). Using his computations of \(\partial\), he is able to obtain vanishing results for I(N) in many cases and the result \(I(N)=bP_ m={\mathbb{Z}}/2\) in many others. A full range of stable homotopy techniques is used in fruitful interplay with a number of differential-topological constructions.