An infinite family of non-Haken hyperbolic 3-manifolds with vanishing Whitehead groups

Abstract

A manifold M is said to be aspherical if its universal covering space is contractible. Farrell and Hsiang have conjectured [3]:Conjecture A. (Topological rigidity of aspherical manifolds.) Any homotopy equivalence f: N → M between closed aspherical manifolds is homotopic to a homeomorphism,and its analogue in algebraic K-theory:Conjecture B. The Whitehead groups Whj(π1M)(j ≥ 0) of the fundamental group of a closed aspherical manifold M vanish.