Related papers: Cyclic Group Actions on Contractible 4-Manifolds
On a smooth closed oriented $4$-manifold $M$ with a smooth action by a compact Lie group $G$, we define a $G$-monopole class as an element of $H^2(M;\Bbb Z)$ which is the first Chern class of a $G$-equivariant Spin$^c$ structure which has a…
We call a non-trivial homology sphere a Kirby-Ramanujam sphere if it bounds both a homology plane and a Mazur or Po\'enaru manifold. In 1980, Kirby found the first example by proving that the boundary of the Ramanujam surface bounds a Mazur…
R. S. Kulkarni showed that a finite group acting pseudofreely, but not freely, preserving orientation, on an even-dimensional sphere (or suitable sphere-like space) is either a periodic group acting semifreely with two fixed points, a…
For each $m\geq0$ and any prime $p\equiv3\ \mathrm{(mod \ 4)}$, we construct strongly chiral rational homology $(4m+3)$-spheres, which have real hyperbolic fundamental groups and only non-zero integral intermediate homology groups…
In this paper, we collect various structural results to determine when an integral homology $3$--sphere bounds an acyclic smooth $4$--manifold, and when this can be upgraded to a Stein manifold. In a different direction we study whether…
We construct a nonsmoothable Z\times Z-action on the connected sum of an Enriques surface and S^2\times S^2, such that each of generators is smoothable. We also construct a nonsmoothable self-homeomorphism on an Enriques surface.
In this paper we use free iterated actions and the iterated discrete degree of symmetry to obtain rigidity results on aspherical manifolds. We also introduce the concept of the length of an iterated action and we study it for nilmanifolds,…
Let $(M,\omega)$ be a ruled symplectic four-manifold. If $(M, \omega)$ is rational, then every homologically trivial symplectic cyclic action on $(M,\omega)$ is the restriction of a Hamiltonian circle action.
We develop the theory of the diagrammatics of surface cross sections to prove that there are an infinite number of homology 3-spheres smoothly embeddable in a homology 4-sphere but not in a homotopy 4-sphere. Our primary obstruction comes…
Let $\rho_0$ be an action of a Lie group on a manifold with boundary that is transitive on the interior. We study the set of actions that are topologically conjugate to $\rho_0$, up to smooth or analytic change of coordinates. We show that…
The group SL(3,Z) cannot act (faithfully) on the circle (by homeomorphisms). We will see that many other arithmetic groups also cannot act on the circle. The discussion will involve several important topics in group theory, such as ordered…
We produce a rational homology 3-sphere that does not smoothly bound either a positive or negative definite 4-manifold. Such a 3-manifold necessarily cannot be rational homology cobordant to a Seifert fibered space or any 3-manifold…
In this paper we show that the cohomology of a connected CW complex is periodic if and only if it is the base space of an orientable spherical fibration with total space that is homotopically finite dimensional. As applications we…
Let $M^m$ be a compact oriented smooth manifold which admits a smooth circle action with isolated fixed points which are isolated as singularities as well. Then all the Pontryagin numbers of $M^m$ are zero and its Euler number is…
The Koras-Russell threefolds are a certain family of smooth, affine contractible threefolds exhibiting "exotic" behavior in the algebro-geometric context. Our goal in this note is to extend its $\mathbb{A}^1$-contractibility from a field to…
We consider Abelian-by-cyclic groups for which the cyclic factor acts by hyperbolic automorphisms on the Abelian subgroup. We show that if such a group acts faithfully by $C^1$ diffeomorphisms of the closed interval with no global fixed…
Given a Morse function on a manifold whose moduli spaces of gradient flow lines for each action window are compact up to breaking one gets a bidirect system of chain complexes. There are different possibilities to take limits of such a…
We construct the first examples of non-smoothable self-homeomorphisms of smooth $4$-manifolds with boundary that fix the boundary and act trivially on homology. As a corollary, we construct self-diffeomorphisms of $4$-manifolds with…
A finite nonabelian simple group does not admit a free action on a homology sphere, and the only finite simple group which acts on a homology sphere with at most 0-dimensional fixed point sets ("pseudofree action") is the alternating group…
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,…