Related papers: A 3-manifold group which is not four dimensional l…
This note studies the Burnside problem for homeomorphism groups of compact connected manifolds. For surfaces, we prove that the identity component of the homeomorphism group is torsion-free precisely when the surface is not the sphere,…
A smooth closed 3-manifold $M$ fibered by tori $T^2$ is characterized by an element $\phi \in GL(2,\mathbb{Z})$. We show that $M$ is the boundary of a 4-manifold fibered by tori over a surface such that the bundle structure on $M$ is the…
We give examples of closed, oriented 3-manifolds whose fundamental groups are not isomorphic, but yet have the same sets of finite quotient groups; hence the same profinite completions. We also give examples of compact, oriented 3-manifolds…
By using Thurston's bending construction we obtain a sequence of faithful discrete representations \rho _n of the fundamental group of a closed hyperbolic 3-manifold fibering over the circle into the isometry group Iso H^4 of the hyperbolic…
We show that fundamental groups of compact, orientable, irreducible 3-manifolds with toroidal boundary are Grothendieck rigid.
In this paper we prove two results, one semi-historical and the other new. The semi-historical result, which goes back to Thurston and Riley, is that the geometrization theorem implies that there is an algorithm for the homeomorphism…
A myriad of irreducible symplectic 4-manifolds with abelian non-cyclic fundamental group is constructed. The botany of manifolds with finite non-cyclic fundamental groups is also studied.
The fundamental group of a Riemannian manifold with $\delta$-pinched negative curvature, $\delta >1/4$, cannot be the fundamental group of a quasicompact K\"ahler manifold. The proof also implies that a non-uniform lattice in $F_{4(-20)}$…
In this sequel to earlier papers by three of the authors, we obtain a new bound on the complexity of a closed 3--manifold, as well as a characterisation of manifolds realising our complexity bounds. As an application, we obtain the first…
This is a summary of some of the basic facts about flat 2-orbifold groups, otherwise known as 2-dimensional crystallographic groups. We relate the geometric and topological presentations of these groups, and consider structures…
We prove that a closed 4-manifold has shadow-complexity zero if and only if it is a kind of 4-dimensional graph manifold, which decomposes into some particular blocks along embedded copies of S^2 x S^1, plus some complex projective spaces.…
We classify closed, topological spin$^+$ 4-manifolds with fundamental group $\pi$ of cohomological dimension $\leq 3$ (up to s-cobordism), after stabilization by connected sum with at most $b_3(\pi)$ copies of $S^2\times S^2$. In general we…
The classical result, due to Jordan, Burnside, Dickson, says that every normal subgroup of $GL(n, K)$ ($K$ - a field, $n \geq 3$) which is not contained in the center, contains $SL(n, K)$. A. Rosenberg gave description of normal subgroups…
The Thurston norm of a 3-manifold measures the complexity of surfaces representing two-dimensional homology classes. We study the possible unit balls of Thurston norms of 3-manifolds $M$ with $b_1(M) = 2$, and whose fundamental groups admit…
In this paper we give a partial answer to a 1980 question of Lazslo Babai: "Which [finite] groups admit an oriented graph as a DRR?" That is, which finite groups admit an oriented regular representation (ORR)? We show that every finite…
We consider the realisation problem for normal 1-types of 4-manifolds with a given boundary. More precisely, given a normal 1-type $\xi$ and closed 3-dimensional $\xi$-manifold $Y$, does there exist a compact 4-dimensional $\xi$-manifold…
Let $K$ be a non-trivial knot in the 3-sphere, $E_K$ its exterior, $G_K = \pi_1(E_K)$ its group, and $P_K = \pi_1(\partial E_K) \subset G_K$ its peripheral subgroup. We show that $P_K$ is malnormal in $G_K$, namely that $gP_Kg^{-1} \cap P_K…
We show that the size of a 4-critical graph of girth at least five is bounded by a linear function of its genus. This strengthens the previous bound on the size of such graphs given by Thomassen. It also serves as the basic case for the…
This paper studies the birational geometry of terminal Gorenstein Fano 3-folds. If Y is not Q-factorial, in most cases, it is possible to describe explicitly the divisor class group Cl Y by running a Minimal Model Program (MMP) on X, a…
Graph manifolds form important classes of $3$-dimensional closed and orientable manifolds. For example, {\it Seifert} manifolds are graph manifolds where hyperbolic manifolds are not. In applying singularity theory of differentiable maps to…