Connected sum at infinity and 4-manifolds (Q488565)

The notion of connected sum at infinity has arisen in various contexts, most recently in connection with exotic smooth structures of open 4-manifolds. If the summands are well behaved at infinity the sum is independent of the choices involved. This paper shows that for each \(m\geq3\) there are infinitely many pairs of open smooth \(m\)-manifolds for which the choice of ray affects the proper homotopy type of the sum. The construction involves ``ladder manifolds'' and the sums are distinguished by their cohomology algebras at infinity. The basic result is extended to give examples of manifolds such that each admits countably many distinct sums with itself.