Simply and tangentially homotopy equivalent but non-homeomorphic homogeneous manifolds (Q6099463)

Let \(L^{p,q}\) be the total space of the principal \(S^1\)-bundle over \(S^2\times S^2\) with first Chern class \(px+qy\), where \(x\) and \(y\) are the standard generators of \(H^2(S^2\times S^2;\mathbb{Z})\cong \mathbb{Z}\oplus\mathbb{Z}\). Then \(L^{p,q}\) is a \(5\)-manifold with fundamental group isomorphic to \(\mathbb{Z}/r\), where \(r=\gcd(p,q)\). The author gives a necessary and sufficient condition for two manifolds \(L^{p,q}\) and \(L^{p',q'}\) to be homotopy equivalent, provided \(\gcd(p,q)=\gcd(p',q')\) is odd, greater than \(1\), and not divisible by \(3\) (Theorem 2.2). With the help of this result, the author proves the following: Theorem 1.1. Let \(r,t\) be integers, where \(r\) is odd, greater than one and not divisible by three. The set \(\mathcal{L}_{r,t}:=\{L^{r,(t+kr)r}\mid k\in\mathbb{Z}\}\) consists of simply and tangentially homotopy equivalent but pairwise non-homeomorphic manifolds on which \(SU(2)\times SU(2)\times U(1)\) acts smoothly and transitively. As an application the author proves that for integers \(r,q\) with \(r\) as in Theorem 1.1, \(L^{r,qr}\times \mathbb{R}^3\) possesses infinitely many metrics of nonnegative sectional curvature with pairwise non-homeomorphic homogeneous souls of codimension three with trivial normal bundle, such that their curvatures and the diameters of the souls are uniformly bounded (Theorem 1.2). These manifolds are the first examples of manifolds fulfilling such geometric conditions, and they serve as solutions to a problem posed by \textit{I. Belegradek} et al. (Problem 3.8 (i) in [J. Differ. Geom. 89, No. 1, 49--85 (2011; Zbl 1242.53035)]). As a by-product, the author also shows that if \(L^3_r\) is a \(3\)-dimensional lens space with fundamental group isomorphic to \(\mathbb{Z}/r\) provided \(r\) as in Theorem 1.1, then the moduli space of complete smooth metrics of nonnegative sectional curvature on \(L^3_r\times S^2\times \mathbb{R}^3\) has infinitely many components (Corollary 1.5). The readers should be careful that there are many typos in this paper. Some superscripts are missing. For instance, in Theorem 1.2, ``\(L^{r,qr}\times \mathbb{R}\)'' should be ``\(L^{r,qr}\times \mathbb{R}^3\)''; and in Corollary 1.4 and 1.6, ``\(L_r^3\times S^2\times \mathbb{R}\)'' should be ``\(L_r^3\times S^2\times \mathbb{R}^3\)''. And some citations are inaccurate. For instance, in the first paragraph of p.58, ``Problem 4.8'' should be ``Problem 3.8''.