Results on the topology of generalized real Bott manifolds (Q2272796)

This paper studies the topology of generalized real Bott manifolds extending previous work of the authors on real Bott manifolds. A generalized real Bott tower is a sequence of projective bundles \[ B_k \xrightarrow{p_k} B_{k-1}\xrightarrow{p_{k-1}}\cdots\xrightarrow{p_2}B_1\xrightarrow{p_1} B_0=\{ *\} \] where \(B_i\), for \(i=1,\dots, k\), is the projectivization of the Whitney sum of \(n_i+1\) real line bundles over \(B_{i-1}\). Each \(B_i\) is called a generalized real Bott manifold (with a real Bott manifold consisting of the case \(n_i=1\), for all \(i\)). The authors begin by reproving that generalized real Bott manifolds are in one-to-one correspondence with small covers over the products of simplices as well as realizing them as real toric varieties associated to smooth projective fans. They go on to study the fundamental group \(\pi_1(B_k)\) giving a presentation, showing that it is solvable, and that it is abelian if and only if it is nilpotent. They also prove that \(B_k\) is a real Bott manifold if and only if it is aspherical (or equivalently that \(\pi_1(B_k)\) is torsion free). They then use the standard description of the \(\mathbb{Z}/2\)-cohomology of \(B_k\) to determine necessary and sufficient conditions for it to be orientable and to admit a spin structure.