Minimal Euler characteristics for even-dimensional manifolds with finite fundamental group

Abstract We consider the Euler characteristics $\chi (M)$ of closed, orientable, topological $2n$ -manifolds with $(n-1)$ -connected universal cover and a given fundamental group G of type $F_n$ . We define $q_{2n}(G)$ , a generalised version of the Hausmann-Weinberger invariant [19] for 4–manifolds, as the minimal value of $(-1)^n\chi (M)$ . For all $n\geq 2$ , we establish a strengthened and extended version of their estimates, in terms of explicit cohomological invariants of G . As an application, we obtain new restrictions for nonabelian finite groups arising as fundamental groups of rational homology 4–spheres.