A controlled-topology proof of the product structure theorem (Q711650)

This paper contains quick proofs of the product structure theorem for smoothing PL manifolds, resp. triangulating topological manifolds. It uses the controlled end and \(h\)-cobordism theorems to obtain the result. The key idea is the following: suppose that \({\mathcal M} \subset {\mathcal N}\) denotes one of the two manifold classes DIFF \(\subset\) PL, or \(\text{PL}\subset \text{TOP}\). The proof uses an \(\mathcal M\) structure on the \(\mathcal N\) manifold \(N \times\mathbb R\) to obtain an \(\mathcal M\) manifold which is a completion of the \(+\infty\) end of \(N \times \mathbb R\).