English

Gluck twists on concordant or homotopic spheres

Geometric Topology 2025-05-22 v3

Abstract

Let MM be a compact 44-manifold and let SS and TT be embedded 22-spheres in MM, both with trivial normal bundle. We write MSM_S and MTM_T for the 44-manifolds obtained by the Gluck twist operation on MM along SS and TT respectively. We show that if SS and TT are concordant, then MSM_S and MTM_T are ss-cobordant, and so if π1(M)\pi_1(M) is good, then MSM_S and MTM_T are homeomorphic. Similarly, if SS and TT are homotopic then we show that MSM_S and MTM_T are simple homotopy equivalent. Under some further assumptions, we deduce that MSM_S and MTM_T are homeomorphic. We show that additional assumptions are necessary by giving an example where SS and TT are homotopic but MSM_S and MTM_T are not homeomorphic. We also give an example where SS and TT are homotopic and MSM_S and MTM_T are homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2206.14113,
  title  = {Gluck twists on concordant or homotopic spheres},
  author = {Daniel Kasprowski and Mark Powell and Arunima Ray},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2206.14113},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

14 pages, 1 figure, 1 table; v2: some typos corrected; v3: minor changes following a referee report, to appear in Mathematical Research Letters