Positive Ricci curvature on the connected sums of \(S^ n\times S^ m\) (Q804963)

It is shown that for any m,n\(\geq 2\) and any \(k\geq 1\) the connected sum {\#}\({}^ k_{i=1}S^ n\times S^ m\) carries a smooth Riemannian metric g with strictly positive Ricci curvature. When k is sufficiently large in comparison to the total dimension \(m+n\), these connected sums do not admit any metric with nonnegative sectional curvature. It is remarkable that such manifolds exist already in the smallest possible dimension which is 4. The basic idea for constructing the metrics g is to rewrite the connected sum {\#}\({}^ k_{i=1}S^ n\times S^ m\) by means of surgery techniques as \[ S^{n-1}\times (S^{m+1}\setminus \coprod^{k}_{i=0}D_ i^{m+1})\cup_{id}(D^ n\times \coprod^{k}_{i=0}S^ m_ i), \] where \(D^ n\) and \(S^ n\) are balls and spheres of the indicated dimensions. This decomposition of the space opens up the possibility of doing an explicit semilocal construction on each copy of \(D^ n\times S^ m_ i\). The approach is flexible enough that the authors can even handle all the manifolds \[ M_ k^{m,n}:=S^{n-1}\times (M^{m+1}\setminus \coprod^{k}_{i=0}D_ i^{m+1})\cup_{id}(D^ n\times \coprod^{k}_{i=0}S^ m_ i), \] where \(M^{m+1}\) is an arbitrary Riemannian manifold with \(Ric>0\). On the base of these additional examples they can actually show that any simply-connected, compact 4- manifold which admits a metric with positive scalar curvature also carries a metric with positive Ricci curvature.