On macroscopic dimension of rationally essential manifolds (Q551155)

The macroscopic dimension \(\dim_{mc}\left(M\right)\) of a manifold \(M\) is the largest integer \(k\) for which there exists a continuous map \(f:M\rightarrow N^k\) from \(M\) to a \(k\)-dimensional simplicial complex \(N^k\) such that the fibers of \(f\) have uniformly bounded diameter. This definition was introduced by Gromov in his work about topological obstructions to the existence of metrics of positive scalar curvature. One of Gromovs conjectures states that closed \(n\)-manifolds \(M\) whose universal covering \(\widetilde{M}\) satisfies \(\dim_{mc}\left(\widetilde{M}\right)<n\) should be rationally inessential, that is \(f_*\left[M\right]=0\in H_n\left(B\pi;{\mathbb Q}\right)\) for the classifying map \(f:M\rightarrow B\pi\) of the fundamental group \(\pi\). The paper under review constructs counterexamples to this conjecture for all \(n\geq 4\). The constructed examples have fundamental group \(\pi_1M=G_1\times G_2\), where \(G_1\) is the fundamental group of a rationally essential manifold and \(G_2\) is a non-amenable finitely presented group. In the general case, it is proved that \(\dim_{mc}\left(\widetilde{M}\right)<n\) is implied by the vanishing of an obstruction class in almost equivariant cohomology.