An orbit space of a nonlinear involution of $S^2\times S^2$ with nonnegative sectional curvature

Abstract

We describe a construction of Riemannian metrics of nonnegative sectional curvature on a closed smooth nonorientable 4-manifold with fundamental group of order two that realizes a homotopy class that was not previously known to contain nonnegatively curved manifolds. The procedure yields new metrics of nonnegative sectional curvature on any 2-sphere bundle with base space the 2-sphere or the real projective plane.