Minimal Two-Spheres and Manifolds with Positive Isotropic Curvature

Abstract

We improve the Micallef--Moore index estimate for harmonic two-spheres in $n$-manifolds with positive isotropic curvature to the sharp bound $n-3$. Combining with recent work, this completes the diffeomorphism classification of closed manifolds with positive isotropic curvature in the remaining dimensions five and six.

7 pages