3 research outputs found
On a problem of Hopf for circle bundles over aspherical manifolds with hyperbolic fundamental groups
We prove that a circle bundle over a closed oriented aspherical manifold with
hyperbolic fundamental group admits a self-map of absolute degree greater than
one if and only if it is the trivial bundle. This generalizes in every
dimension the case of circle bundles over hyperbolic surfaces, for which the
result was known by the work of Brooks and Goldman on the Seifert volume. As a
consequence, we verify the following strong version of a problem of Hopf for
the above class of manifolds: Every self-map of non-zero degree of a circle
bundle over a closed oriented aspherical manifold with hyperbolic fundamental
group is either homotopic to a homeomorphism or homotopic to a non-trivial
covering and the bundle is trivial.
As another application, we derive the first examples of non-vanishing
numerical invariants that are monotone with respect to the mapping degree on
non-trivial circle bundles over aspherical manifolds with hyperbolic
fundamental groups of any dimension. Moreover, we obtain the first examples of
manifolds (given by the aforementioned bundles with torsion Euler class) which
do not admit self-maps of absolute degree greater than one, but admit maps of
infinitely many different degrees from other manifolds.Comment: 12 pages; v2: results extended to circle bundles over aspherical
manifolds with hyperbolic fundamental groups, title changed accordingl
Graph manifolds have virtually positive Seifert volume
International audienc