Related papers: Corks, Plugs and exotic structures
We give several criteria on a closed, oriented 3-manifold that will imply that it is the boundary of a (simply connected) 4-manifold that admits infinitely many distinct smooth structures. We also show that any weakly fillable contact…
This article intends to provide an introduction to the construction of small exotic 4-manifolds. Some of the necessary background is covered. An exposition is given of J. Park's construction in arXiv:math.GT/0311395 of an exotic…
We give a brief survey of some facts about homotopy $4$-spheres \cite{a1}, then give a proof that the curious homotopy sphere constructed in \cite{a2} is in fact diffeomorphic to the standard $S^4$, and discuss its relation to infinite…
By use of a variety of techniques (most based on constructions of quasipositive knots and links, some old and others new), many smooth 3-manifolds are realized as transverse intersections of complex surfaces in complex 3-space with strictly…
We describe a collection of constructions which illustrate a panoply of ``exotic'' smooth 4-manifolds.
We introduce the notion of rational links in the solid torus. We show that rational links in the solid torus are fully characterized by rational tangles, and hence by the continued fraction of the rational tangle. Furthermore, we generalize…
Boring is an operation which converts a knot or two-component link in a 3--manifold into another knot or two-component link. It generalizes rational tangle replacement and can be described as a type of 2--handle attachment. Sutured manifold…
Recent advances in differential topology single out four-dimensions as being special, allowing for vast varieties of exotic smoothness (differential) structures, distinguished by their handlebody decompositions, even as the coarser…
We show that for any po sitive integer $m$, there exist order $n$ Stein corks. The boundaries are cyclic branched covers of slice knots embedded in the boundary of corks. By applying these corks to generalized forms, we give a method…
A hypercomplex manifold is a manifold with three complex structures satisfying quaternionic relations. Such a manifold admits a unique torsion-free connection preserving the quaternionic action, called the Obata connection. A compact Kahler…
The aim of this paper is to produce infinite exotic structures on smooth closed oriented $4-$manifolds with fundamental group isomorphic to the infinite dihedral group, assuming that $b_2^+$ and $b_2^-$ are at least $12$.
We use normal sections to relate the curvature locus of regular (resp. singular corank 1) 3-manifolds in $\mathbb{R}^6$ (resp. $\mathbb R^5$) with regular (resp. singular corank 1) surfaces in $\mathbb R^5$ (resp. $\mathbb R^4$). For…
Knots and knotted fields enrich physical phenomena ranging from DNA and molecular chemistry to the vortices of fluid flows and textures of ordered media. Liquid crystals provide an ideal setting for exploring such topological phenomena…
Motivated by a result of L.P. Roberts on rational blow-downs in Heegaard-Floer homology, we study such operations along 3-manifolds that arise as branched double covers of $S^{3}$ along several non-alternating, slice knots.
In this paper, we give an explicit construction of dynamical systems (defined within a solid torus) containing any knot (or link) and arbitrarily knotted chaos. The first is achieved by expressing the knots in terms of braids, defining a…
We study the properties of glued knots, a sub-class of real rational knots, that can be constructed by gluing ellipses. We define an invariant called the gluing degree and relate it to various classical properties of knots and classify all…
This is a survey of the geometry of complex cubic fourfolds with a view toward rationality questions. Topics include classical constructions of rational examples, Hodge structures and special cubic fourfolds, associated K3 surfaces and…
Knots and links which are closed 3-braids are a very special class. Like 2-bridge knots and links, they are simple enough to admit a complete classification. At the same time they are rich enough to serve as a source of examples on which,…
Inspired by a recent result of Levine-Lidman-Piccirillo, we construct infinitely many exotic smooth structures on some closed four-manifolds with definite intersection form and fundamental group isomorphic to $\Z /2\Z$. Similar…
Four-manifold theory is employed to study the existence of (twisted) generalized complex structures. It is shown that there exist (twisted) generalized complex structures that have more than one type change loci. In an example-driven…