Related papers: Simply-connected, spineless 4-manifolds

We prove that 1) There exist infinitely many non-trivial codimension one "thick" knots in $\mathbb{R}^5$; 2) For each closed four-dimensional smooth manifold $M$ and for each sufficiently small positive $\epsilon$ the set of isometry…

We study smooth proper embeddings of compact orientable surfaces in compact orientable $4$-manifolds and elements in the mapping class group of that surface which are induced by diffeomorphisms of the ambient $4$-manifolds. We call such…

We prove that there exist infinitely many topologically slice knots which cannot bound a smooth null-homologous disk in any definite 4-manifold. Furthermore, we show that we can take such knots so that they are linearly independent in the…

We construct stable minimal hypersurfaces with simple topology in certain compact $4$-manifolds $X$ with boundary, where $X$ embeds into a smooth manifold homeomorphic to $S^4$. For example, if $X$ is equipped with a Riemannian metric $g$…

We prove that the cut-system complex of a sutured compression body, with vertices representing cut-systems and edges corresponding to handleslides, becomes simply connected when six kinds of 2-cells are attached. Moreover, we define tight…

Consider a dihedral cover $f: Y\to X$ with $X$ and $Y$ four-manifolds and $f$ branched along an oriented surface embedded in $X$ with isolated cone singularities. We prove that only a slice knot can arise as the unique singularity on an…

We study which lens spaces can bound smooth 4-manifolds with second Betti number one under various topological conditions. Specifically, we show that there are infinite families of lens spaces that bound compact, simply-connected, smooth…

We give new obstructions to the module structures arising in Heegaard Floer homology. As a corollary, we characterize the possible modules arising as the Heegaard Floer homology of an integer homology sphere with one-dimensional reduced…

We determine the number of distinct fibre homotopy types for the gauge groups of principal $Sp(2)$-bundles over a closed, simply-connected four-manifold.

In this note we study whether specific elements in the second homology of specific simply connected closed $4$-manifolds can be represented by smooth or topologically flat embedded spheres.

We prove that pseudoholomorphic curves intersect complex 2-cycles positively in almost complex 4-manifolds. This makes possible a general and conceptually simple proof that an almost complex 4-manifold with many curves admits a taming…

We prove necessary and sufficient conditions for a smooth surface in a 4-manifold X to be pseudoholomorphic with respect to some almost complex structure on X. This provides a systematic approach to the construction of pseudoholomorphic…

We produce infinitely many distinct irreducible smooth 4-manifolds homeomorphic to #(2m+1)(CP^2 # -CP^2) and #(2n+1)(S^2 x S^2), respectively, for each m>3 and n>4. These provide the smallest exotic closed simply connected 4-manifolds with…

We prove that every suitable $4$-manifold with $b_1=0$ and with an embedded Riemann surface of genus $2$ is of simple type. We find a relationship between the basic classes of two of these $4$-manifolds and those of the connected sum along…

This note serves to record examples of diffeomorphisms of closed smooth $4$-manifolds $X$ that are homotopic but not pseudoisotopic to the identity, and to explain why there are no such examples when $X$ is orientable and its fundamental…

From any 4-dimensional oriented handlebody X without 3- and 4-handles and with b_2>0, we construct arbitrary many compact Stein 4-manifolds which are mutually homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to each other, so that their topological…

We apply Heegaard Floer homology to study deformations of singularities of plane algebraic curves. Our main result provides an obstruction to the existence of a deformation between two singularities. Generalizations include the case of…

It is well known that for any exotic pair of simply connected closed oriented 4-manifolds, one is obtained from the other by twisting a compact contractible submanifold via an involution on the boundary. By contrast, here we show that for…

Islambouli showed that there exist infinitely many 4-manifolds admitting non-isotopic trisections using a Nielsen equivalence, which can be used to construct non-isotopic Heegaard splittings. In this paper, we show that there exist…

Here we discuss an example of topologically isotopic but smoothly non-isotopic pair of 2-spheres in a simply connected 4-manifold, which become smoothly isotopic after stabilizing by connected summing with S^2 x S^2.