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Given a self-diffeomorphism h of a closed, orientable surface S and an embedding f of S into a three-manifold M, we construct a mutant manifold N by cutting M along f(S) and regluing by h. We will consider whether there are any gluings such…

We construct an explicit bundle with flat connection on the configuration space of n points of a complex curve. This enables one to recover the `formality' isomorphism between the Lie algebra of the prounipotent completion of the pure braid…

The paper is devoted to prove a version of Milnor-Moore Theorem for connected braided bialgebras that are infinitesimally cocommutative. Namely in characteristic different from 2, we prove that, for a given connected braided bialgebra $A$…

Motivated by physical constructions of homological knot invariants, we study their analogs for closed 3-manifolds. We show that fivebrane compactifications provide a universal description of various old and new homological invariants of…

Let $M=H_1\cup_S H_2$ be a Heegaard splitting of a closed orientable 3-manifold $M$ (or a bridge decomposition of a link exterior). Consider the subgroup $\mathrm{MCG}^0(H_j)$ of the mapping class group of $H_j$ consisting of mapping…

Choose any oriented link type X and closed braid representatives X[+], X[-] of X, where X[-] has minimal braid index among all closed braid representatives of X. The main result of this paper is a `Markov theorem without stabilization'. It…

We define a trisection of a closed, orientable three dimensional manifold into three handlebodies, and a notion of stabilization for these trisections. Several examples of trisections are described in detail. We define the trisection genus…

In Part I, we extend our analysis in [arXiv:0807.1107], and show that a mathematically conjectured geometric Langlands duality for complex surfaces in [1], and its generalizations -- which relate some cohomology of the moduli space of…

We establish a general `gluing theorem', which states roughly that if two nondegenerate constant mean curvature surfaces are juxtaposed, so that their tangent planes are parallel and very close to one another, but oppositely oriented, then…

This paper combines several new constructions in mathematics and physics. Mathematically, we study framed flat PGL(K,C)-connections on a large class of 3-manifolds M with boundary. We define a space L_K(M) of framed flat connections on the…

This is the first of a series of papers devoted to proving the equivalence of Heegaard Floer homology and embedded contact homology (abbreviated ECH). In this paper we prove that, given a closed, oriented, contact $3$-manifold, there is an…

Let M be a compact, connected surface, possibly with a finite set of points removed from its interior. Let d,n be positive integers, and let N be a d-fold covering space of M. We show that the covering map induces an embedding of the n-th…

In this paper, we investigate some applications of commutator subgroups to homotopy groups and geometric groups. In particular, we show that the intersection subgroups of some canonical subgroups in certain link groups modulo their…

We give another proof of a theorem of Scharlemann and Tomova and of a theorem of Hartshorn. The two theorems together say the following. Let M be a compact orientable irreducible 3--manifold and P a Heegaard surface of M. Suppose Q is…

We generalize the following result of White: Suppose $N$ is a compact, strictly convex domain in $\RR^3$ with smooth boundary. Let $\Sigma$ be a compact 2-manifold with boundary. Then a generic smooth curve $\Gamma\cong \partial\Sigma$ in…

We present new explicit decompositions of manifolds via so-called fold maps into lower dimensional spaces. Fold maps form a nice class of so-called generic maps, generalizing Morse functions naturally. To understand the topologies and the…

In this paper, we classify homomorphisms from the braid group of $n$ strands to the mapping class group of a genus $g$ surface. In particular, we show that when $g<n-2$, all representations are either cyclic or standard. Our result is sharp…

Let $N_{g,n}$ denote the nonorientable surface of genus $g$ with $n$ boundary components and $M(N_{g,n})$ its mapping class group. We obtain an explicit finite presentation of $M(N_{g,n})$ for $n=0,1$ and all $g$ such that $g+n>3$.

We consider a union of two pants decompositions of the same orientable 2-dimensional surface of any genus g. Each pants decomposition corresponds to some handlebody bounded by this surface, so two pants decompositions correspond to a…

We prove that there is an algorithm which determines whether or not a given 2-polyhedron can be embedded into some integral homology 3-sphere. This is a corollary of the following main result. Let $M$ be a compact connected orientable…