Manifolds with small topological complexity (Q6593010)

Let \(X\) be a path connected space and \(\pi:X^I\rightarrow X\times X\) (\(X^I\) is the space of free paths in \(X\)) the fibration given by \(\pi(\omega)=(\omega(0),\omega(1))\). The topological complexity of \(X\), denoted by \(\mathrm{TC}(X)\), was defined by \textit{M. Farber} [Disc. Comput. Geom. 29, 211--221 (2003; Zbl 1038.68130)] as the minimal integer \(m\) such that there exists an open cover \(\{U_1,\ldots,U_m\}\) of \(X\times X\) with the property that \(\pi\) has a section \(s_i:U_i\rightarrow X^I\) over each \(U_i\) (in other words, \(\mathrm{TC}(X)\) is the Schwarz genus, or sectional category, of fibration \(\pi\)).\N\NIn general it is a very difficult task to compute topological complexity of a given space. So, an interesting question is to classify manifolds that have prescribed topological complexity. It is well-known that \(\mathrm{TC}(X)=1\) if and if \(X\) is contractible. In [\textit{M. Grant} et al., Homology Homotopy Appl. 15, No. 2, 73--81 (2011; Zbl 1277.55001)]] the authors proved that for a closed manifold \(X\) one has \(\mathrm{TC}(X)=2\) if and if \(X\) is homeomorphic to some sphere of odd dimension.\N\NIn the paper under review the author studies manifolds with topological complexity at most 3. A lower bound for topological complexity is Lusternik-Schnirelmann category. Using this observation and a result from [\textit{A. N. Dranishnikov} et al., Geom. Topol. 12, 1711--1727 (2008; Zbl 1152.55002)], the author first proves that if a closed orientable manifold of dimension at least 3 satisfies \(\mathrm{TC}(X)\leq 3\), then \(\pi_1(X)\) is trivial or isomorphic to \(\mathbb Z\). This is latter applied to classify cohomology rings of these manifolds. Finally, for some of the admissible cohomology rings the corresponding manifolds are determined up to a homeomorphism, while for the others a number of examples is given.