Related papers: Comparing 4-Manifolds in the Pants Complex via Tri…
Gems are a particular type of edge-colored graphs, dual to colored triangulations, which represent compact PL-manifolds of arbitrary dimension, both in the closed and boundary case. In the present paper, gem theory is used to approach…
These notes summarize and expand on a mini-course given at CIRM in February 2018 as part of Winter Braids VIII. We somewhat obsessively develop the slogan `Trisections are to 4-manifolds as Heegaard splittings are to 3-manifolds', focusing…
We distinguish diffeomorphism types of relative trisections using a ``capping'' operation, which yields a trisection diagram of a closed 4-manifold from a relative trisection diagram. Using this operation, we give various examples of…
We conclude the construction of the algebraic complex, consisting of spaces of differentials of Euclidean metric values, for four-dimensional piecewise-linear manifolds. Assuming that the complex is acyclic, we investigate how its torsion…
Recent developments in the understanding of $N=2$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory in four dimensions suggest a new point of view about Donaldson theory of four manifolds: instead of defining four-manifold invariants by counting $SU(2)$…
We construct polynomial conformal invariants, the vanishing of which is necessary and sufficient for an $n$-dimensional suitably generic (pseudo-)Riemannian manifold to be conformal to an Einstein manifold. We also construct invariants…
Meier and Zupan showed that every surface in the four-sphere admits a bridge trisection and can therefore be represented by three simple tangles. This raises the possibility of applying methods from link homology to knotted surfaces. We use…
This article is a first step in establishing a link between the Donaldson polynomials and Seiberg-Witten invariants of a smooth 4-manifold.
We construct a mathematical framework for twisted N=2 supersymmetric topological quantum field theory on a 4-manifold. Supersymmetry in flat space is defined and the twist homomorphism is constructed, giving us a supermanifold that is the…
Closed (and simply-connected) manifolds whose dimensions are larger than 4 are central geometric objects in classical algebraic topology and differential topology. They have been classified via algebraic and abstract objects. On the other…
We construct a scalar invariant of flat principal 2-bundles over 3-manifolds, with structure 2-group $\mathcal{G}$, from an involutory Hopf algebra graded by $\mathcal{G}$. Expressing $\mathcal{G}$ in terms of a crossed module $\chi$ and…
We provide two constructions of hyperbolic metrics on 3-manifolds with Heegaard splittings that satisfy certain topological conditions, which both apply to random Heegaard splittings with asymptotic probability 1. These constructions…
A multisection is a decomposition of a manifold into 1-handlebodies, where each subcollection of the pieces intersects along a 1-handlebody except the global intersection which is a closed surface. These generalizations of Heegaard…
The twisted torsion of a 3-manifold is well-known to be zero whenever the corresponding twisted Alexander module is non-torsion. Under mild extra assumptions we introduce a new twisted torsion invariant which is always non-zero. We show how…
We give invariants of pairs $(M,L)$ consisting of a closed connected oriented three-manifold and an (oriented) framed link $L$ embedded in $M$. This invariant generalizes the Kuperberg and Hennings-Kauffman-Radford (HKR) invariants of…
3-manifolds are commonly represented as triangulations, consisting of abstract tetrahedra whose triangular faces are identified in pairs. The combinatorial sparsity of a triangulation, as measured by the treewidth of its dual graph, plays a…
We provide an explicit formula for the invariant of 4-manifolds introduced by Crane and Yetter (in hep-th 9301062). A consequence of our result is the existence of a combinatorial formula for the signature of a 4-manifold in terms of local…
We study the geometry of fanning curves in the Grassmann manifold of n-dimensional subspaces of $\mathbb{R}^{kn}$; we construct a complete system of invariants which solve the congruence problem. The geometry of the invariants themselves…
By exploiting standard facts about $N=1$ and $N=2$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory, the Donaldson invariants of four-manifolds that admit a Kahler metric can be computed. The results are in agreement with available mathematical…
We show the existence of a $4$-manifold with boundary that admits two non-diffeomorphic minimal genus relative trisections of the same $(g,k;p,b)$-type. To prove this, we introduce a simple operation that produces a trisection diagram of a…