A simplification problem in manifold theory (Q2314873)

The authors study the question whether \(\mathbb{R}\)-diffeomorphic manifolds are diffeomorphic or homeomorphic. Here two smooth manifolds \(M, N\) are called \(\mathbb{R}\)-diffeomorphic if \(M\times\mathbb{R}\) and \(N\times\mathbb{R}\) are diffeomorphic. This question is closely related to the \(h\)- and \(s\)-cobordism theorem, e.g. two closed simply-connected \(\mathbb{R}\)-diffeomorphic manifolds are homeomorphic. They are even diffeomorphic if their dimension is different from 4. The authors mostly restrict to closed manifolds and present a survey about what is known in high dimensions as well as in dimensions 3 and 4. Also some new results about the classification of \(\mathbb{R}\)-diffeomorphism are given.