On a problem of Hopf for circle bundles over aspherical manifolds with hyperbolic fundamental groups (Q6188364)

The main theorem of the paper states that that a circle bundle over a closed oriented aspherical manifold with hyperbolic fundamental group admits a self-map of absolute degree greater than one if and only if it is virtually trivial. This generalizes the result of \textit{R. Brooks} and \textit{W. Goldman} [Duke Math. J. 51, 529--545 (1984; Zbl 0546.57003)] from surfaces to every dimension. As a consequence the following strong version of a problem of H. Hopf is verified for the above class of manifolds: every self-map of nonzero degree of a circle bundle over a closed oriented aspherical manifold with hyperbolic fundamental group is either homotopic to a homeomorphism or homotopic to a nontrivial covering and the bundle is virtually trivial. Examples of nonvanishing numerical invariants that are monotone with respect to the mapping degree on nontrivial circle bundles over aspherical manifolds with hyperbolic fundamental groups in any dimension are also derived.