Related papers: Stein fillings and SU(2) representations

We introduce a framework to prove integral rigidity results for the Seiberg-Witten invariants of a closed $4$-manifold $X$ containing a non-separating hypersurface $Y$ satisfying suitable (chain-level) Floer theoretic conditions. As a…

We use intersection theory techniques to define an invariant of closed 3-manifolds counting the characters of irreducible representations of the fundamental group in PSL(2,C). We note several properties of the invariant and compute the…

This article analyzes the interplay between symplectic geometry in dimension four and the invariants for smooth four-manifolds constructed using holomorphic triangles introduced in math.SG/0110169. Specifically, we establish a non-vanishing…

Let a contact 3-manifold $(Y, \xi_0)$ be the link of a normal surface singularity equipped with its canonical contact structure $\xi_0$. We prove a special property of such contact 3-manifolds of "algebraic" origin: the Heegaard Floer…

Symplectic instanton homology is an invariant for closed oriented three-manifolds, defined by Manolescu and Woodward, which conjecturally corresponds to a symplectic version of a variant of Floer's instanton homology. In this thesis we…

We introduce a diffeomorphism invariant of $4$-manifolds, the $\mathrm{Pin}^-(2)$-monopole invariant, defined by using the $\mathrm{Pin}^-(2)$-monopole equations. We compute the invariants of several $4$-manifolds, and prove gluing…

In an earlier paper (math.SG/0101206), we introduced Floer homology theories associated to closed, oriented three-manifolds Y and SpinC structures. In the present paper, we give calculations and study the properties of these invariants. The…

We make some elementary observations concerning subcritically Stein fillable contact structures on 5-manifolds. Specifically, we determine the diffeomorphism type of such contact manifolds in the case the fundamental group is finite cyclic,…

These notes of a course given at IRMA in April 2009 cover some aspects of the representation theory of fundamental groups of manifolds of dimension at most 3 in compact Lie groups, mainly $\su$. We give detailed examples, develop the…

In this work, we prove that every complex contact structure gives rise to a distinguished type of almost contact metric 3-structure. As an application of our main result, we provide several new examples of manifolds which admit taut contact…

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 describe a necessary and sufficient condition for a principal circle bundle over an even-dimensional manifold to carry an invariant contact structure. As a corollary it is shown that all circle bundles over a given base manifold carry an…

We construct power series invariants of rational homology 3-spheres from quantum PSU(n)-invariants. The power series can be regarded as perturbative invariants corresponding to the contribution of the trivial connection in the hypothetical…

Sutured instanton Floer homology was introduced by Kronheimer and Mrowka. In this paper, we prove that for a taut balanced sutured manifold with vanishing second homology, the dimension of the sutured instanton Floer homology provides a…

We consider a connected negative definite plumbing graph, and we assume that the associated plumbed 3-manifold is a rational homology sphere. We provide two new combinatorial formulae for the Seiberg-Witten invariant of this manifold. The…

Let $X$ be a differentiable manifold endowed with a transitive action $\alpha:A\times X\longrightarrow X$ of a Lie group $A$. Let $K$ be a Lie group. Under suitable technical assumptions, we give explicit classification theorems, in terms…

We show that the bordered-sutured Floer invariant of the complement of a tangle in an arbitrary 3-manifold $Y$, with minimal conditions on the bordered-sutured structure, satisfies an unoriented skein exact triangle. This generalizes a…

Suppose $\Gamma$ is a discrete group, and $\alpha\in Z^3(B\Gamma;A)$, with $A$ an abelian group. Given a representation $\rho:\pi_1(M)\to\Gamma$, with $M$ a closed 3-manifold, put $F(M,\rho)=\langle(B\rho)^\ast[\alpha],[M]\rangle$, where…

We construct Bott-type and equivariant Seiberg-Witten Floer homology and cohomology for 3-manifolds, in particular rational homology spheres, and prove their diffeomorphism invariance. This paper is a revised version of math.DG/9701010.…

The existence of topological invariants analogous to Chern/Pontryagin classes for a standard $SO(D)$ or $SU(N)$ connection, but constructed out of the torsion tensor, is discussed. These invariants exhibit many of the features of the…