Related papers: The 4-Dimensional Light Bulb Theorem

David Gabai recently proved a smooth 4-dimensional "Light Bulb Theorem" in the absence of 2-torsion in the fundamental group. We extend his result to 4-manifolds with arbitrary fundamental group by showing that an invariant of Mike Freedman…

We give a 4-dimensional light bulb theorem for properly embedded disks, generalizing recent work of Gabai and Kosanovic-Teichner in certain contexts, and extending the 4-dimensional light bulb theorem for 2-spheres due to Gabai and…

We prove a concordance analogue of Gabai's $4$-dimensional light bulb theorem. That is, we show that when $R$ and $R'$ are homotopically (smoothly) embedded $2$-spheres in a $4$-manifold $X^4$ where $\pi_1(X^4)$ has no $2$-torsion and one…

We construct infinitely many smooth oriented 4-manifolds containing pairs of homotopic, smoothly embedded 2-spheres that are not topologically isotopic, but that are equivalent by an ambient diffeomorphism inducing the identity on homology.…

We present new smoothing techniques for topologically embedded surfaces in smooth 4-manifolds, which give topological isotopy to a smooth surface. As applications, we prove "topological = smooth" results in dimension 4 for certain disks and…

Given a $d$-dimensional manifold $M$ and a knotted sphere $s\colon\mathbb{S}^{k-1}\hookrightarrow\partial M$ with $1\leq k\leq d$, for which there exists a framed dual sphere $G\colon\mathbb{S}^{d-k}\hookrightarrow\partial M$, we show that…

We show how self-referential discs in 4-manifolds lead to the construction of pairs of discs with a common geometrically dual sphere which are homotopic rel $\partial$, concordant and coincide near their boundaries, yet are not properly…

For a 4-manifold $M$ and a knot $k\colon\mathbb{S}^1\hookrightarrow\partial M$ with dual sphere $G\colon\mathbb{S}^2\hookrightarrow\partial M$, we compute the set $\mathbb{D}(M;k)$ of smooth isotopy classes of neat embeddings…

A link in the 3-sphere is homotopically trivial, according to Milnor, if its components bound disjoint maps of disks in the 4-ball. This paper concerns the question of what spaces give rise to the same class of homotopically trivial links…

Any two homologous surfaces of the same genus embedded in a smooth 4-manifold X with simply-connected complements are shown to be smoothly isotopic in the connected sum of X and the product of a 2-sphere with itself, if the surfaces are…

We find conditions under which a non-orientable closed surface S embedded into an orientable closed 4-manifold X can be represented by a connected sum of an embedded closed surface in X and an unknotted projective plane in a 4-sphere. This…

We prove a concordance version of the 4-dimensional light bulb theorem for $\pi_1$-negligible compact orientable surfaces, where there is a framed but not necessarily embedded dual sphere. That is, we show that if $F_0$ and $F_1$ are such…

If $\Sigma$ and $\Sigma'$ are homotopic embedded surfaces in a $4$-manifold then they may be related by a regular homotopy (at the expense of introducing double points) or by a sequence of stabilisations and destabilisations (at the expense…

Let $M$ be a smooth, orientable, closed, connected $4$-manifold and suppose that $H_1(M;\mathbb{Z})$ is finitely generated and has no $2$-torsion. We give a homotopy decomposition of the suspension of $M$ in terms of spheres, Moore spaces…

An obstruction theory for representing homotopy classes of surfaces in 4-manifolds by immersions with pairwise disjoint images is developed, using the theory of non-repeating Whitney towers. The accompanying higher-order intersection…

Two 4-manifolds are stably diffeomorphic if they become diffeomorphic after connected sum with S^2 x S^2's. This paper shows that two closed, orientable, homotopy equivalent, smooth 4-manifolds are stably diffeomorphic, provided a certain…

In this note we give a complete obstruction for two homotopic embeddings of a 2-sphere into a 5-manifold to be isotopic. The results are new even though the methods are classical, the main tool being the elimination of double points via a…

Let $M$ be a closed 4-manifold with $\pi_2(M)\cong{Z}$. Then $M$ is homotopy equivalent to either $CP^2$, or the total space of an orbifold bundle with general fibre $S^2$ over a 2-orbifold $B$, or the total space of an $RP^2$-bundle over…

This paper addresses several isotopy problems on $4$-manifolds. First, we classify the isotopy classes of embeddings of $\Sigma$ in $\Sigma\times S^2$ that are geometrically dual to $\{\mbox{pt}\}\times S^2$, where $\Sigma$ is a closed…

We use surgery along 2-tori embedded in a union of two copies of a product of punctured 2-tori to produce a new collection of homotopy 4-spheres (4-manifolds homotopy equivalent to $S^4$ and hence homeomorphic to $S^4$ but possibly not…