Groups of Homotopy Spheres: I

Abstract

DEFINITION. Two closed n-manifolds M, and M2 are h-cobordant1 if the disjoint sum M, + (- M2) is the boundary of some manifold W, where both M1 and (-M2) are deformation retracts of W. It is clear that this is an equivalence relation. The connected sum of two connected n-manifolds is obtained by removing a small n-cell from each, and then pasting together the resulting boundaries. Details will be given in ? 2.