A lower bound in the problem of realization of cycles

Abstract

We consider the classical Steenrod problem on realization of integral homology classes by continuous images of smooth oriented manifolds. Let $k\left(n\right)$ be the smallest positive integer such that any integral $n$-dimensional homology class becomes realizable in the sense of Steenrod after multiplication by $k\left(n\right)$. The best known upper bound for $k\left(n\right)$ was obtained independently by Brumfiel and Buchstaber in 1969. All known lower bounds for $k\left(n\right)$ were very far from this upper bound. The main result of this paper is a new lower bound for $k\left(n\right)$ that is asymptotically equivalent to the Brumfiel–Buchstaber upper bound (in the logarithmic scale). For , we prove that our lower bound is exact. Also, we obtain analogous results for the case of realization of integral homology classes by continuous images of smooth stably complex manifolds.