Spaces with vanishing \(\ell^2\)-homology and their fundamental groups (after Farber and Weinberger) (Q5955165)

In this elegant paper the authors completely characterize those groups which can occur as fundamental groups of finite CW-complexes with vanishing \(\ell^2\)-homology. The first examples of such groups were obtained by \textit{M. Farber} and \textit{S. Weinberger} [On the zero-in-the-spectrum conjecture, Ann. Math. (2) 154, No. 1, 139-154 (2001; Zbl 0992.58012)]. The main result of the paper is: Let \(G\) be a finitely presented group and suppose that the homology groups \(H_k(G,\ell^2(G))\) are zero for \(k=0, 1, 2.\) For every dimension \(n\geq 6\) there is a closed manifold \(M\) of dimension \(n\) with \(\pi_1(M)=G\) and such that \(H_k(M,\ell^2(G))=0\) for all \(k\geq 0\).