Related papers: Every 4-Manifold is BLF

The existence of a positive allowable Lefschetz fibration on a compact Stein surface with boundary was established by Loi and Piergallini by using branched covering techniques. Here we give an alternative simple proof of this fact and…

For a compact, smooth C^r orbifold (without boundary), we show that the topological structure of the orbifold diffeomorphism group is a Banach manifold for finite r \ge 1 and a Frechet manifold if r=infty. In each case, the local model is…

We show that any homologically non-trivial Dehn twist of a compact surface F with boundary is the lifting of a half-twist in the braid group B_n, with respect to a suitable branched covering p : F -> B^2. In particular, we allow the surface…

Every compact symplectic 4-manifold can be realized as a branched cover of the complex projective plane branched along a symplectic curve with cusp and node singularities; the covering map is induced by a triple of sections of a "very…

A foliation $(M,\mathcal{F})$ is said to be $2$--calibrated if it admits a closed 2-form $\omega$ making each leaf symplectic. By using approximately holomorphic techniques, a sequence $W_k$ of $2$--calibrated submanifolds of…

We provide new branched covering representations for bounded and/or non-compact 4-manifolds, which extend the known ones for closed 4-manifolds. Assuming $M$ to be a connected oriented PL 4-manifold, our main results are the following: (1)…

We study the classification of Lefschetz fibrations up to stabilization by fiber sum operations. We show that for each genus there is a `universal' fibration f^0_g with the property that, if two Lefschetz fibrations over S^2 have the same…

Integral symplectic 4-manifolds may be described in terms of Lefschetz fibrations. In this note we give a formula for the signature of any Lefschetz fibration in terms of the second cohomology of the moduli space of stable curves. As a…

Questions of geography of various classes of $4$-manifolds have been a central motivating question in $4$-manifold topology. Baykur and Korkmaz asked which small, simply connected, minimal $4$-manifolds admit a genus $2$ Lefschetz…

We extend a result of M. Katz on conformal systoles to all four-manifolds with b^+=1 which have odd intersection form. The same result holds for all four-manifolds with b^+=1 with even intersection form and which are symplectic or satisfy…

Symplectic four-manifolds give rise to Lefschetz fibrations, which are determined by monodromy representations of free groups in mapping class groups. We study the topology of Lefschetz fibrations by analysing the action of the monodromy on…

Given a Lagrangian submanifold in a symplectic manifold and a Morse function on the submanifold, we show that there is an isotopic Morse function and a symplectic Lefschetz pencil on the manifold extending the Morse function to the whole…

The purpose of this note is to show that classical cobordism arguments, which go back to the pioneering works of Mandelbaum and Moishezon, provide quick and unified proofs of any knot surgered compact simply-connected 4-manifold X_K…

We prove that, under a simple condition on the cohomology ring, every closed 4-manifold has mod 2 Seiberg-Witten simple type. This result shows that there exists a large class of topological 4-manifolds such that all smooth structures have…

We construct stable minimal hypersurfaces with simple topology in certain compact $4$-manifolds $X$ with boundary, where $X$ embeds into a smooth manifold homeomorphic to $S^4$. For example, if $X$ is equipped with a Riemannian metric $g$…

This paper is the second part of our work on 4-dimensional 2-handlebodies. In the first part (arXiv:math.GT/0407032) it is shown that up to certain set of local moves, connected simple coverings of B^4 branched over ribbon surfaces,…

In this article we study Weinstein structures endowed with a Lefschetz fibration in terms of the Legendrian front projection. First we provide a systematic recipe for translating from a Weinstein Lefschetz bifibration to a Legendrian…

Let $(M,\omega)$ be a symplectic manifold endowed with a agrangian foliation ${\cal L}$, it has been shown by Weinstein [16] hat the symplectic structure of $M$ defines on each leaf of ${\cal L}$, connection which curvature and torsion…

Using the results of Nikulin and Vinberg on the groups of isometries generated by reflections, we construct a subvariety called the Nikulin-Vinberg locus in the moduli space of polarized hyperkahler manifolds. It is obtained as a finite…

We prove the following result: Let $(X,g_0)$ be a complete, connected 4-manifold with uniformly positive isotropic curvature and with bounded geometry. Then there is a finite collection $\mathcal{F}$ of manifolds of the form $\mathbb{S}^3…