On the homotopy classification of 4-manifolds having the fundamental group of an aspherical 4-manifold (Q5937560)

Let \(Q\) be a fixed closed oriented aspherical \(4\)-manifold; the authors study the homotopy type of closed connected oriented topological \(4\)-manifolds \(M\) having the fundamental group isomorphic to \(\pi=\pi_1(Q)\). A standard example of such a manifold is the connected sum \(Q\#M'\), where \(M'\) is an arbitrary simply connected closed \(4\)-manifold. In this paper, they investigate when \(M\) is homotopy equivalent to such a standard manifold \(Q\#M'\). First, they show that if \(f\) is degree one, then the \(3\)-skeleton of \(M\) is homotopy equivalent to the \(3\)-skeleton of a certain standard example \(Q\# M'\), where \(f:M\to Q=B\pi\) denotes the classifying map of the universal covering of \(M\). Next, they study the \(k\)-invariant \(k^3_M\in H^3(Q,\pi_2(M))\) and prove that the classifying map \(f\) is degree one if and only if \(k^3_M=0\). Finally, assume \(k^3_M=0\) and let \(\Lambda =\mathbb Z [\pi_1]\) denote the integral group ring. Then they show that if the \(\Lambda\)-intersection form \(\mu^{\Lambda}: H_2(M,\Lambda)\times H_2(M,\Lambda)\to \Lambda\) is extended from the usual \(\mathbb Z\)-intersection form, then \(M\) is homotopy equivalent to certain standard example \(Q\#M'\). Furthermore, in this case, they also show that there is an obstruction \(\tau (M)\in \text{Wh}(\pi)/\text{Out}(\pi)\) for \(M\) being simple homotopy equivalent to the standard example \(Q\#M'\). The proof of this paper is elementary and interesting.