Milnor's homotopy-sphere conjecture for Brieskorn manifolds

Let a0,a1,,an2a_0, a_1,\dots,a_n\geq 2, and let

K(a0,a1,,an)={x0a0+x1a1++xnan=0}S2n+1K(a_0,a_1,\dots,a_n)=\{x_0^{a_0}+x_1^{a_1}+\dots+x_n^{a_n}=0\}\cap \mathbf{S}^{2n+1}

be the (2n1)(2n-1)-dimensional Brieskorn link. Let Γ(a0,a1,,an)\Gamma(a_0,a_1,\dots,a_n) be the graph with vertices 0,1,,n0,1,\dots,n, joining ii and jj when gcd(ai,aj)>1\gcd(a_i,a_j)>1. Milnor's conjecture. For n3n\geq 3, the link K(a0,a1,,an)K(a_0,a_1,\dots,a_n) is a homotopy (2n1)(2n-1)-sphere if and only if Γ(a0,a1,,an)\Gamma(a_0,a_1,\dots,a_n) has at least two isolated points, or has one isolated point and at least one connected component Γ\Gamma' with an odd number of vertices such that gcd(ai,aj)=2\gcd(a_i,a_j)=2 for all distinct vertices i,jΓi,j\in\Gamma'. This gives a combinatorial criterion for recognizing when Brieskorn links are homotopy spheres; the source presents it as a conjecture of Milnor, and no resolution is supplied in the provided text.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Alan H. Durfee, “Singularities”, arXiv:math/9801123 (1998).

Progress summary

Never refreshed

Nothing recorded yet. Refresh searches the literature and the public web for attempts on this problem, and writes the first summary here.

Solutions 0

No solutions have been posted yet.