English

When are two Coxeter orbifolds diffeomorphic?

Geometric Topology 2014-07-24 v3

Abstract

One can define what it means for a compact manifold with corners to be a "contractible manifold with contractible faces." Two combinatorially equivalent, contractible manifolds with contractible faces are diffeomorphic if and only if their 4-dimensional faces are diffeomorphic. It follows that two simple convex polytopes are combinatorially equivalent if and only if they are diffeomorphic as manifolds with corners. On the other hand, by a result of Akbulut, for each n > 3, there are smooth, contractible n-manifolds with contractible faces which are combinatorially equivalent but not diffeomorphic. Applications are given to rigidity questions for reflection groups and smooth torus actions.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1306.6046,
  title  = {When are two Coxeter orbifolds diffeomorphic?},
  author = {Michael W. Davis},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1306.6046},
  year   = {2014}
}

Comments

24 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-22T00:40:12.843Z