Related papers: Unsmoothable group actions on compact one-manifold…

We prove that if a finite group $G$ acts smoothly on a manifold $M$ so that all the isotropy subgroups are abelian groups with rank $\leq k$, then $G$ acts freely and smoothly on $M \times \bbS^{n_1} \times...\times \bbS^{n_k}$ for some…

We construct a regularized index of a generalized Dirac operator on a complete Riemannian manifold endowed with a proper action of a unimodular Lie group. We show that the index is preserved by a certain class of non-compact cobordisms and…

For any right-angled Artin group, we show that its outer automorphism group contains either a finite-index nilpotent subgroup or a nonabelian free subgroup. This is a weak Tits alternative theorem. We find a criterion on the defining graph…

As was recently pointed out by McMullen and Taubes [Math. Res. Lett. 6 (1999) 681-696], there are 4-manifolds for which the diffeomorphism group does not act transitively on the deformation classes of orientation-compatible symplectic…

The mapping class group $M(X)$ of a smooth manifold $X$ is the group of smooth isotopy classes of orientation preserving diffeomorphisms of $X$. We prove a number of results about the mapping class groups of compact, simply-connected,…

We consider conformal actions of simple Lie groups on compact Lorentzian manifolds. Mainly motivated by the Lorentzian version of a conjecture of Lichnerowicz, we establish the alternative: Either the group acts isometrically for some…

We study the extension of homologically trivial symplectic or Hamiltonian cyclic actions to Hamiltonian circle actions on irrational ruled symplectic $4$-manifolds. On one hand, we construct symplectic involutions on minimal irrational…

This is a slightly altered version of the authors thesis from 2014. In the first main part we show that the quotient space of a compact, simply connected and nonnegatively curved Riemannian 4-manifold by an effective, isometric…

We prove that the topological full group $[[X]]$ of a two-sided full shift $X = \Sigma^{\mathbb{Z}}$ contains every right-angled Artin group (also called a graph group). More generally, we show that the family of subgroups with "linear…

Given a compact surface $M$, consider the natural right action of the group of diffeomorphisms $\mathcal{D}(M)$ of $M$ on $\mathcal{C}^{\infty}(M,\mathbb{R})$ defined by the rule: $(f,h)\mapsto f\circ h$ for $f\in…

Motivated by the enhanced gauge symmetry phenomenon of the physics literature and mirror symmetry, this paper constructs an action of an Artin group on the derived category of coherent sheaves of a smooth quasiprojective threefold…

We prove a variety of results about subgroups of Thompson's group $V$. First we prove that every action graph of a finitely generated subgroup of $V$ acting on an orbit in Cantor space is quasi-isometric to a tree. Then we prove that for a…

The ``Flux conjecture'' for symplectic manifolds states that the group of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms is C^1-closed in the group of all symplectic diffeomorphisms. We prove the conjecture for spherically rational manifolds and for those…

This note surveys the well-known structure of G-manifolds and summarizes parts of two papers that have not yet appeared in print: one with joint with J. Bruning and F. W. Kamber, and another with I. Prokhorenkov. In particular, from a given…

Let $B$ be a M\"obius band and $f:B \to \mathbb{R}$ be a Morse map taking a constant value on $\partial B$, and $\mathcal{S}(f,\partial B)$ be the group of diffeomorphisms $h$ of $B$ fixed on $\partial B$ and preserving $f$ in the sense…

Let $(\mathcal{V},\mathcal{W};F)$ be a weakly reducible, unstabilized, Heegaard splitting of genus at least three in an orientable, irreducible $3$-manifold $M$. Then $Mod(M,F)$ naturally acts on the disk complex $\mathcal{D}(F)$ as a group…

In this article, we consider perturbations of isometries on a compact Riemannian manifold $M$. We investigate the smooth (resp. analytic) rigidity phenomenon of groups of these isometries. As a particular case, we prove that if a finite…

A result of Allock [1](arXiv:math/9907194) states that certain orbifold braid groups contain Artin groups of type $D_n$, $\tilde{B}_n$ and $\tilde{D}_n$ as finite index subgroups. The underlying orbifolds have at most two cone points of…

In this paper, we prove various results for circle actions on compact unitary manifolds with discrete fixed point sets, generalizing results for almost complex manifolds. For a circle action on a compact unitary manifold with a discrete…

We study finite abelian group actions on weakly Lefschetz cohomologically symplectic (WLS) manifolds, a collection of manifolds that includes all compact connected Kaehler manifolds. We prove that for any WLS manifold $X$ there exists a…