Pseudo-isotopy versus isotopy for homeomorphisms of 4-manifolds
Geometric Topology
2025-06-16 v1
Abstract
We define obstructions which obstruct topological pseudo-isotopies from being isotopic to isotopies in dimension four. These match the smooth obstructions of Hatcher-Wagoner for smooth pseudo-isotopies, and accordingly are valued in certain Whitehead groups. We show that our obstructions are fully realisable, and we use these realisations to build homeomorphisms of for many 3-manifolds that are pseudo-isotopic to the identity but not isotopic to the identity.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2506.11905,
title = {Pseudo-isotopy versus isotopy for homeomorphisms of 4-manifolds},
author = {Daniel Galvin and Isacco Nonino},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.11905},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
55 pages, 10 figures. Comments welcome!