Related papers: Man and machine thinking about the smooth 4-dimens…

We develop a geometric approach to stable homotopy groups of spheres in the spirit of the work of Pontrjagin and Rokhlin. A new proof of the Hopf Invariant One Theorem by J.F.Adams is obtained in all dimensions except 15 and 31. To prove…

For any $s \in [-\infty, 0] $ and oriented homology 3-sphere $Y$, we introduce a homology cobordism invariant $r_s(Y)\in (0,\infty]$. The values $\{r_s(Y)\}$ are included in the critical values of the $SU(2)$-Chern-Simons functional of $Y$,…

We find further evidence for the conjecture relating large N Chern-Simons theory on S^3 with topological string on the resolved conifold geometry by showing that the Wilson loop observable of a simple knot on S^3 (for any representation)…

The first part of this paper is a short review of the construction [dg-ga/9710001] of invariants of rational homology 3-spheres and knots in terms of configuration space integrals. The second part describes the relationship between the…

This is a survey article about the connections between knot theory and four-dimensional topology. Every four-manifold can be represented in terms of a link, by a Kirby diagram. This point of view has led to progress in computing invariants…

R.~Lawrence has conjectured that for rational homology spheres, the series of Ohtsuki's invariants converges p-adicly to the SO(3) Witten-Reshetikhin-Turaev invariant. We prove this conjecture for Seifert rational homology spheres. We also…

We define Pin(2)-equivariant Seiberg-Witten Floer homology for rational homology 3-spheres equipped with a spin structure. The analogue of Froyshov's correction term in this setting is an integer-valued invariant of homology cobordism whose…

We use the Chern-Simons quantum field theory in order to prove a recently conjectured limitation on the 1/K expansion of the Jones polynomial of a knot and its relation to the Alexander polynomial. This limitation allows us to derive a…

We report on some recent work on deformation of spaces, notably deformation of spheres, describing two classes of examples. The first class of examples consists of noncommutative manifolds associated with the so called $\theta$-deformations…

This article presents the constructions of new infinite families of smooth 4-manifolds with the property that any two manifolds in the same family are homeomorphic and, from their construction, seem to be quite different, but cannot be…

A Riemann-Cartan manifold is a Riemannian manifold endowed with an affine connection which is compatible with the metric tensor. This affine connection is not necessarily torsion free. Under the assumption that the manifold is a homogeneous…

We construct a compact PL 5-manifold $M$ (with boundary) which is homotopy equivalent to the wedge of eleven 2-spheres, $\vee^{}_{1 1}S^2$, which is "spineless", meaning $M$ is not the regular neighborhood of any 2-complex PL embedded in…

The cosmetic surgery conjecture predicts that for a non-trivial knot in the three-sphere, performing two different Dehn surgeries results in distinct oriented three-manifolds. Hanselman reduced the problem to $\pm 2$ or $\pm 1/n$ surgeries…

The main target of this thesis is to solve the Perron's conjecture. This conjecture affirms that some function on the mod p Torelli group, with values in Z/p, is an invariant of mod p homology 3-spheres. In order to solve this conjecture,…

Let $LHT$ be a left handed trefoil knot and $K$ be any knot. We define $M_n(K)$ to be the homology $3$-sphere which is represented by a simple link of $LHT$ and $LHT \sharp K$ with framings $0$ and $n$ respectively. Starting with this link,…

In this paper, we exploit a subtle indeterminacy in the definition of the spherical Kervaire-Milnor invariant which was discovered by R. Stong to construct non-spin 4-manifolds with even intersection form and prescribed signature.

When two smooth manifold bundles over the same base are fiberwise tangentially homeomorphic, the difference is measured by a homology class in the total space of the bundle. We call this the relative smooth structure class. Rationally and…

This article surveys our ongoing project about the relationship between invariants extending the classical Rohlin invariant of homology spheres and those coming from 4-dimensional (Yang-Mills) gauge theory. The main conjecture towards which…

We obtain new invariants of topological link concordance and homology cobordism of 3-manifolds from Hirzebruch-type intersection form defects of towers of iterated p-covers. Our invariants can extract geometric information from an arbitrary…

We introduce a 4-dimensional analogue of the rational Seifert genus of a knot $K\subset Y$, which we call the rational slice genus, that measures the complexity of a homology class in $H_2(Y\times [0,1],K;\mathbb{Q})$. Our main theorem is a…