English

Branched covering simply-connected 4-manifolds

Geometric Topology 2022-11-02 v2 Symplectic Geometry

Abstract

We prove that any closed simply-connected smooth 4-manifold is 16-fold branched covered by a product of an orientable surface with the 2-torus, where the construction is natural with respect to spin structures. In particular this solves Problem 4.113(C) in Kirby's list. We also discuss analogous results for other families of 4-manifolds with infinite fundamental groups.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2102.01043,
  title  = {Branched covering simply-connected 4-manifolds},
  author = {David Auckly and R. Inanc Baykur and Roger Casals and Sudipta Kolay and Tye Lidman and Daniele Zuddas},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2102.01043},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

11 pages. Updated to reflect solution to Kirby Problem 4.113(C)

R2 v1 2026-06-23T22:44:08.629Z