On trivialities of Euler classes of oriented vector bundles over manifolds (Q2284285)

Let \(\mathcal{E}\) be the set of diffeomorphism classes of closed connected smooth manifolds \(X \) such that for every oriented vector bundle \(\alpha\) over \(X\), the Euler class \(e(\alpha) = 0\), and let \(\mathcal{E}_k\) be the subset of \(\mathcal{E}\) of manifolds with dimension \(k\). In the recent literature there are results about the same subject by considering oriented bundles over \(CW\)-complexes. In this very interesting paper, the authors give a complete description for \(k \leq 5\) and give partial results for \(k= 6\). Let us denote by \(X\) a closed connected smooth \(k\)-manifold. Then one has the following results: \begin{itemize} \item \(X \in \mathcal{E}_3\) if and only if \(X\) is a smooth homology \(3\)-sphere. \item \( \mathcal{E}_4 = \emptyset\). \item \(X \in \mathcal{E}_5\) if and only if \(H^2(X;\mathbb{Z}) = 0; \, H^4(X;\mathbb{Z} ) = 0\), and the \(2\)-primary component of \(H_2(X; \mathbb{Z})\) is trivial \end{itemize} There exists an oriented vector bundle \(\alpha\) over the projective space \(\mathbb{RP}^5\) or over the lens spaces of dimension \( 5\) such that \( e(\alpha) \neq 0\). Then the authors construct examples of \(X \in \mathcal{E}_5 \) in the case where \(X\) is a simply connected closed smooth \(5\)-manifold, for \(X\) a smooth closed non-orientable manifold and also for \(X\) a non-simply connected closed smooth oriented \(5\)-manifold. The authors also observe that any \(X \in \mathcal{E}_6 \) must have non-positive Euler characteristic.