Nonhomeomorphic closed aspherical four-manifolds

What OpenAI claims

Constructs closed connected aspherical topological four-manifolds that are homotopy equivalent but not homeomorphic, with a common word-hyperbolic fundamental group. This disproves even the homeomorphism-existence formulation of the Borel conjecture in dimension four.

Paper

1. Nonhomeomorphic closed aspherical four-manifolds with the same homotopy type

   4 October 2026 · Preprint, not peer reviewed · PDF

   We construct closed connected aspherical topological four-manifolds that are homotopy equivalent but not homeomorphic, disproving the homeomorphism-existence formulation of the Borel conjecture in dimension four. Their common fundamental group is word-hyperbolic. One of the manifolds also has a self-homotopy equivalence not homotopic to a homeomorphism.

Status

Preprint. The paper has not been independently reviewed. Treat the result as OpenAI's claim until other mathematicians have checked it. If a video exists, it illustrates the statement; it is not the proof.