The π-π-theorem for manifold pairs with boundaries

Abstract

The surgery obstruction of a normal map to a simple Poincare pair (X, Y) lies in the relative surgery obstruction group L *(π 1(Y) → π 1(X)). A well-known result of Wall, the so-called π-π-theorem, states that in higher dimensions a normal map of a manifold with boundary to a simple Poincare pair with π 1(X) ≅ π 1(Y) is normally bordant to a simple homotopy equivalence of pairs. In order to study normal maps to a manifold with a submanifold, Wall introduced the surgery obstruction groups LP * for manifold pairs and splitting obstruction groups LS *. In the present paper, we formulate and prove for manifold pairs with boundary results similar to the π-π-theorem. We give direct geometric proofs, which are based on the original statements of Wall’s results and apply obtained results to investigate surgery on filtered manifolds.