Related papers: Contact Moishezon threefolds with second Betti num…

We show the minimal total Betti number of a closed almost complex manifold of dimension $2n\ge 8$ is four, thus confirming a conjecture of Sullivan except for dimension $6$. Along the way, we prove the only simply connected closed complex…

Let (m,b) a pair of natural numbers. For m even (resp. m odd and b greater than or equal to 2) we show that if there is an m-dimensional non-formal compact oriented manifold whose first Betti number equals b, there is also a symplectic…

We prove that a projective contact manifold X with second Betti number at least 2 whose canonical bundle K_X is not nef, is always the projectivised tangent bundle P(T_Y) of a projective manifold Y. It is expected that the canonical bundle…

Let $(m,b)$ be a pair of natural numbers. For $m$ odd with $m \ge 7$ (resp. $m \ge 5$) and $b=1$ (resp. $b=0$) we show that there is a non-formal compact (almost) contact $m$-manifold with first Betti number $b_1 = b$. Moreover, in the case…

Let X be a complex Fano-manifolds with second Betti-number 1 which carries a contact structure. It follows from previous work that such a manifold can always be covered by lines. Thus, it seems natural to consider the geometry of lines in…

We prove that any simply connected compact 3-Sasakian manifold, of dimension seven, is formal if and only if its second Betti number is $b_2<2$. In the opposite, we show an example of a 7-dimensional Sasaki-Einstein manifold, with second…

We classify all contact projective spaces with contact surgery number one. In particular, this implies that there exist infinitely many non-isotopic contact structures on the real projective 3-space which cannot be obtained by a single…

We describe the structure of singular transversely affine foliations of codimension one on projective manifolds X with zero first Betti number. Our result can be rephrased as a theorem on rank two reducible flat meromorphic connections.

The second Betti number of a smooth, closed, connected and simply connected, four-dimensional spin manifold is greater or equal 11/8 times the abolute value of its signature.

Let X be a complex-projective contact manifold whose second Betti-number is one. It has long been conjectured that X should then be rational-homogeneous, or equivalently, that there exists an embedding of X into a projective space whose…

We prove that every nondegenerate contact form on a closed connected three-manifold, such that the associated contact structure has torsion first Chern class, has either two or infinitely many simple Reeb orbits. By previous results it…

We show that there exist non-formal compact oriented manifolds of dimension $n$ and with first Betti number $b_1=b\geq 0$ if and only if $n\geq 3$ and $b\geq 2$, or $n\geq (7-2b)$ and $0\leq b\leq 2$. Moreover, we present explicit examples…

We prove that a compact contact threefold which is bimeromorphically equivalent to a Kaehler manifold and not rationally connected is the projectivised tangent bundle of a Kaehler surface.

We analyze the moduli space of non-flat homogeneous affine connections on surfaces. For Type $\mathcal{A}$ surfaces, we write down complete sets of invariants that determine the local isomorphism type depending on the rank of the Ricci…

We construct the first example of a 5-dimensional simply connected compact manifold that admits a K-contact structure but does not admit a semi-regular Sasakian structure. For this, we need two ingredients: (a) to construct a suitable…

We prove an inequality between the sum of the Betti numbers of a complex projective manifold and its total curvature, and we characterize the complex projective manifolds whose total curvature is minimal. These results extend the classical…

H. Sato introduced a Schwarzian derivative of a contactomorphism of three-dimensional Euclidean space and with T. Ozawa described its basic properties. In this note their construction is extended to all odd dimensions and to non-flat…

Nous montrons que les seules vari\'et\'es toriques munies d'une structure de contact sont, \`a isomorphisme pr\`es, les espaces projectifs complexes et les vari\'et\'es $\mathbb{P}_{\mathbb{P}^{1}\times\cdots\times\mathbb{P}^{1}}…

We study which lens spaces can bound smooth 4-manifolds with second Betti number one under various topological conditions. Specifically, we show that there are infinite families of lens spaces that bound compact, simply-connected, smooth…

We give examples of closed hyperbolic 3-manifolds with first Betti number 2 and 3 for which no sequence of finite abelian covering spaces increases the first Betti number. For 3-manifolds $M$ with first Betti number 2 we give a…