On the Classification of Manifolds Up to Finite Ambiguity

Abstract

In the early 70's Dennis Sullivan applied his theory of minimal models and surgery to the classification of 1-connected closed smooth manifolds of dimension ≥ 5 up to finite ambiguity [Su]. To a diffeomorphism class of such a manifold M he assigns the isomorphism class given by the real minimal model ℳ (M), the integral structure in form of various lattices and the real Pontryagin classes. If one controls the torsion of the manifolds by some bound, his result is that the map given by the triple above is finite-to-one ([Su], Theorem 13.1). He also proves a realization result for the rational minimal model and the Pontryagin classes but not for the lattices ([Su], Theorem 13.2).