Manifolds with odd Euler characteristic and higher orientability

Abstract

It is well-known that odd-dimensional manifolds have Euler characteristic zero. Furthemore orientable manifolds have an even Euler characteristic unless the dimension is a multiple of $4$. We prove here a generalisation of these statements: a $k$-orientable manifold (or more generally Poincaré complex) has even Euler characteristic unless the dimension is a multiple of $2^{k+1}$, where we call a manifold $k$-orientable if the $i^{th}$ Stiefel-Whitney class vanishes for all $0<i< 2^k$ ($k\geq 0$). More generally, we show that for a $k$-orientable manifold the Wu classes $v_l$ vanish for all $l$ that are not a multiple of $2^k$. For $k=0,1,2,3$, $k$-orientable manifolds with odd Euler characteristic exist in all dimensions $2^{k+1}m$, but whether there exist a 4-orientable manifold with an odd Euler characteristic is an open question.