Essential manifold


In geometry, an essential manifold is a special type of closed manifold. The notion was first introduced explicitly by Mikhail Gromov.

Definition

A closed manifold M is called essential if its fundamental class defines a nonzero element in the homology of its fundamental group, or more precisely in the homology of the corresponding Eilenberg–MacLane space K, via the natural homomorphism
where n is the dimension of M. Here the fundamental class is taken in homology with integer coefficients if the manifold is orientable, and in coefficients modulo 2, otherwise.

Examples