Related papers: Brieskorn spheres bounding rational balls
We discuss an obstruction to a knot being smoothly slice that comes from minimum-genus bounds on smoothly embedded surfaces in definite 4-manifolds. As an example, we provide an alternate proof of the fact that the (2,1)-cable of the figure…
We show that if $V^3$ is a handlebody in $\R^3$, with curves $J_1, ..., J_g \subset \partial V$ which are the attaching curves for a Heegaard splitting of a homology sphere, then there exists a homeomorphism $h\colon V \to V$ so that each…
We consider the nonholonomic systems of $n$ homogeneous balls $\mathbf B_1,\dots,\mathbf B_n$ with the same radius $r$ that are rolling without slipping about a fixed sphere $\mathbf S_0$ with center $O$ and radius $R$. In addition, it is…
In dimension $5$, the contact connected sum of Brieskorn contact spheres is, in general, not a Brieskorn contact sphere.
We study the control system of a Riemannian manifold $M$ of dimension $n$ rolling on the sphere $S^n$. The controllability of this system is described in terms of the holonomy of a vector bundle connection which, we prove, is isomorphic to…
A manifold which admits a reducible genus-$2$ Heegaard splitting is one of the $3$-sphere, $S^2 \times S^1$, lens spaces or their connected sums. For each of those splittings, the complex of Haken spheres is defined. When the manifold is…
A linear ball is a simplicial complex whose geometric realization is homeomorphic to a ball and whose Stanley--Reisner ring has a linear resolution. It turns out that the Stanley--Reisner ring of the sphere which is the boundary complex of…
High proved the following theorem. If the intersections of any two congruent copies of a plane convex body are centrally symmetric, then this body is a circle. In our paper we extend the theorem of High to spherical, Euclidean and…
We give a short proof of Scharlemann's Strong Haken Theorem for closed $3$-manifolds (and manifolds with spherical boundary). As an application, we also show that given a decomposing sphere $R$ for a $3$-manifold $M$ that splits off an $S^2…
In this paper, we give a parameterization of the SU(2,1) representation space of the Brieskorn homology spheres using the trace coordinates. As applications, we give an example which shows that the orbifold Toledo invariant in \cite{krebs}…
There is a relationship between the Borromean rings, the icosahedron and something called the Poincar\'e homology sphere. This relationship is explored in a wandering path that introduces fundamental ideas from topology and a geometric…
We classify all finite group actions on knots in the 3-sphere. By geometrization, all such actions are conjugate to actions by isometries, and so we may use orthogonal representation theory to describe three cyclic and seven dihedral…
Strongly regular graphs are highly symmetrical and can be described fully with just a few parameters, yet the existence of many of them is still under the question. In this paper, we continue the study of the famuly of strongly regular…
In this paper we define and investigate Z/2-homology cobordism invariants of Z/2-homology 3-spheres which turn out to be related to classical invariants of knots. As an application we show that many lens spaces have infinite order in the…
Graded skew-commutative rings occur often in practice. Here are two examples: 1) The cohomology ring of a compact three-dimensional manifold. 2) The cohomology ring of the complement of a hyperplane arrangement (the Orlik-Solomon algebra).…
We provide three 3-dimensional characterizations of the Z-slice genus of a knot, the minimal genus of a locally-flat surface in 4-space cobounding the knot whose complement has cyclic fundamental group: in terms of balanced algebraic…
We exhibit an infinite family of rational homology balls which embed smoothly but not symplectically in the complex projective plane. We also obtain a new lattice embedding obstruction from Donaldson's diagonalisation theorem, and use this…
We use instanton gauge theory to prove that if $Y$ is a closed, orientable $3$-manifold such that $H_1(Y;\mathbb{Z})$ is nontrivial and either $2$-torsion or $3$-torsion, and if $Y$ is neither $\#^r \mathbb{RP}^3$ for some $r\geq 1$ nor…
This paper examines the representations of hyperbolic integral homology spheres into the binary icosahedral group $2I$. We specifically give a geometric meaning to $2I$ representations by relating them to Larsen's notion of quotient…
This note describes an invariant of rational homology 3-spheres in terms of configuration space integrals which in some sense lies between the invariants of Axelrod and Singer and those of Kontsevich.