English

Flexible Surfaces in $\mathbb{C}P^2$ and $S^2\times S^2$

Geometric Topology 2026-02-17 v1

Abstract

A surface Σ\Sigma in a 4-manifold MM is called flexible if any mapping class of the surface arises as the restriction of a diffeomorphism (M,Σ)(M,Σ)(M,\Sigma) \to (M,\Sigma). We construct flexible surfaces in CP2\mathbb{C}P^2 and S2×S2S^2 \times S^2 within any prescribed non-characteristic homology class. Within characteristic homology classes there is a spin structure obstructing flexibility and we construct so-called spin-flexible representatives.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2602.14753,
  title  = {Flexible Surfaces in $\mathbb{C}P^2$ and $S^2\times S^2$},
  author = {Joshua Lehman},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.14753},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

19 pages, 9 figures. Comments welcome!