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We construct an infinite order cork (W,f), which means that W is a smooth compact contractible 4-manifold with Stein structure, and f is a self diffeomorphism of the boundary of W, such that the n-fold composition maps f^{n}=f o f o... o f…

We define a subset of an almost complex manifold (M,J) to be a holomorphic shadow if it is the image of a J-holomorphic map from a compact complex manifold. Notice that a J-holomorphic curve is a holomorphic shadow, and so is a complex…

We show how to construct absolutely exotic smooth structures on compact 4-manifolds with boundary, including contractible manifolds. In particular, we prove that any compact smooth 4-manifold W with boundary that admits a relatively exotic…

A small cover is a closed smooth manifold of dimension $n$ having a locally standard $\mathbb{Z}_2^n$-action whose orbit space is isomorphic to a simple polytope. A typical example of small covers is a real projective toric manifold (or,…

We construct projectors in the ring of correspondences of a complex uniruled 3-fold $X$ which lift the Kuenneth components of the diagonal in singular cohomology and have other properties which were conjectured by J. Murre. Such Murre…

We examine the integral cohomology rings of certain families of $2n$-dimensional orbifolds $X$ that are equipped with a well-behaved action of the $n$-dimensional real torus. These orbifolds arise from two distinct but closely related…

In this expository paper we review some twistor techniques and recall the problem of finding compact differentiable manifolds that can carry both K\"ahler and non-K\"ahler complex structures. Such examples were constructed independently by…

A survey of some results and open questions related to the following algebraic invariants of compact complex manifolds, that can be obtained from differential forms: cohomology groups, Chern classes, rational homotopy groups, and higher…

In a recent breakthrough, Ren and Willis gave the first analysis-free proof of the existence of exotic compact, orientable 4-manifolds; their main tool is the Khovanov skein lasagna module defined by Morrison, Walker, and Wedrich. In this…

This is a survey on known results and open problems about closed aspherical manifolds, i.e., connected closed manifolds whose universal coverings are contractible. Many examples come from certain kinds of non-positive curvature conditions.…

In this paper we present another notion of a smooth manifold with corners and relate it to the commonly used concept in the literature. Afterwards we introduce complex manifolds with corners and show that if $M$ is a compact (respectively…

Given a manifold with corners $X$, we associates to it the corner structure simplicial complex $\Sigma_X$. Its reduced K-homology is isomorphic to the K-theory of the $C^*$-algebra $\mathcal{K}_b(X)$ of b-compact operators on $X$. Moreover,…

We discuss corks, and introduce new objects which we call plugs. Though plugs are fundamentally different objects, they also detect exotic smooth structures in 4-manifolds like corks. We discuss relation between corks, plugs and rational…

In this article we introduce the notion of Polyhedral Kahler manifolds, even dimensional polyhedral manifolds with unitary holonomy. We concentrate on the 4-dimensional case, prove that such manifolds are smooth complex surfaces, and…

We extend Matveev's complexity of 3-manifolds to PL compact manifolds of arbitrary dimension, and we study its properties. The complexity of a manifold is the minimum number of vertices in a simple spine. We study how this quantity changes…

An almost complex torus manifold is a $2n$-dimensional compact connected almost complex manifold equipped with an effective action of a real $n$-dimensional torus $T^n \simeq (S^1)^n$ that has fixed points. For an almost complex torus…

These notes are devoted to explaining aspects of the mirror manifold problem that can be naturally understood from the point of view of topological field theory. Basically this involves studying the topological field theories made by…

For a large class of $N=2$ SCFTs, which includes minimal models and many $\s$ models on Calabi-Yau manifolds, the mirror theory can be obtained as an orbifold. We show that in such a situation the construction of the mirror can be extended…

Let M be a (possibly non-orientable) compact 3-manifold with (possibly empty) boundary consisting of tori and Klein bottles. Let $X\subset\partial M$ be a trivalent graph such that $\partial M\setminus X$ is a union of one disc for each…

This paper is a survey on the Lickorish type construction of some kind of closed manifolds over simple convex polytopes. Inspired by Lickorish's theorem, we propose a method to describe certain families of manifolds over simple convex…