In mathematics, specifically in surgery theory, the surgery obstructions define a map θ : N ( X ) → L n ( π 1 ( X ) ) {\displaystyle \theta \colon {\mathcal {N}}(X)\to L_{n}(\pi _{1}(X))} from the normal invariants to the L-groups which is in the first instance a set-theoretic map (that means not necessarily a homomorphism) with the following property when n ≥ 5 {\displaystyle n\geq 5} : A degree-one normal map ( f , b ) : M → X {\displaystyle (f,b)\colon M\to X} is normally cobordant to a homotopy equivalence if and only if the image θ ( f , b ) = 0 {\displaystyle \theta (f,b)=0} in L n ( Z [ π 1 ( X ) ] ) {\displaystyle L_{n}(\mathbb {Z} [\pi _{1}(X)])} .
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