Related papers: Topology change and selection rules for high-dimen…
In this note, we study necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a Spin $(n + 1)$-dimensional cobordism that supports a non-singular and non-degenerate pseudo-Riemannian metric of signature $(2, n - 1)$, which restricts to a…
We derive the topological obstruction to spin-Klein cobordism. This result has implications for signature change in general relativity, and for the $N=2$ superstring.
In 2+1 dimensional gravity, a dreibein and the compatible spin connection can represent a space-time containing a closed spacelike surface $\Sigma$ only if the associated SO(2,1) bundle restricted to $\Sigma$ has the same non-triviality…
Capacities that provide both qualitative and quantitative obstructions to the existence of a Lagrangian cobordism between two $(n-1)$-dimensional submanifolds in parallel hyperplanes of $\mathbb{R}^{2n}$ are defined using the theory of…
The aim of the present paper is the investigation of $Spin(9)$-structures on 16-dimensional manifolds from the point of view of topology as well as holonomy theory. First we construct several examples. Then we study the necessary…
It is shown that every bundle $\varSigma\to M$ of complex spinor modules over the Clifford bundle $\Cl(g)$ of a Riemannian space $(M,g)$ with local model $(V,h)$ is associated with an lpin ("Lipschitz") structure on $M$, this being a…
We investigate topology change in (1+1) dimensions by analyzing the scalar-curvature action $1/2 \int R dV$ at the points of metric-degeneration that (with minor exceptions) any nontrivial Lorentzian cobordism necessarily possesses. In two…
We show that many Lorentzian manifolds of dimension >2 do not admit a spacelike codimension-one foliation, and that almost every manifold of dimension >2 which admits a Lorentzian metric at all admits one which satisfies the dominant energy…
It is known that spin cobordism can be determined by Stiefel-Whitney numbers and index theory invariants, namely $KO$-theoretic Pontryagin numbers. In this paper, we show that string cobordism at dimension 24 can be determined by elliptic…
We present necessary and sufficient conditions for a group homomorphism between spaces of smooth sections of Lie group bundles to be a weighted composition operator. These results provide new insights into a wide range of problems related…
We study the process of compactification as a topology change. It is shown how the mediating spacetime topology, or cobordism, may be simplified through surgery. Within the causal Lorentzian approach to quantum gravity, it is shown that any…
We are studying the harmonic and twistor equation on Lorentzian surfaces, that is a two dimensional orientable manifold with a metric of signature $(1,1)$. We will investigate the properties of the solutions of these equations and try to…
We classify closed, topological spin$^+$ 4-manifolds with fundamental group $\pi$ of cohomological dimension $\leq 3$ (up to s-cobordism), after stabilization by connected sum with at most $b_3(\pi)$ copies of $S^2\times S^2$. In general we…
Using geometric arguments, we compute the group of homotopy classes of maps from a closed $(n+1)$-dimensional manifold to the $n$-sphere for $n \geq 3$. Our work extends results from Kirby, Melvin and Teichner for closed oriented…
We show that a Kleinian surface group, or hyperbolic 3-manifold with a cusp-preserving homotopy-equivalence to a surface, has bounded geometry if and only if there is an upper bound on an associated collection of coefficients that depend…
We give necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of pin+, pin- and spin structures on Riemannian manifolds with holonomy group $Z_2^k$. For any n>3 (resp. n>5) we give examples of pairs of compact manifolds (resp. compact…
We analyse the boundary structure of General Relativity in the coframe formalism in the case of a lightlike boundary, i.e., when the restriction of the induced Lorentzian metric to the boundary is degenerate. We describe the associated…
A generic smooth map of a closed $2k$-manifold into $(3k-1)$-space has a finite number of cusps ($\Sigma^{1,1}$-singularities). We determine the possible numbers of cusps of such maps. A fold map is a map with singular set consisting of…
We study the rigidity of compact submanifolds of Riemannian manifolds of arbitrary codimension that satisfy a sharp pinching condition involving the norm of the second fundamental form and the mean curvature. Without assuming that the…
We propose an explicit spin-foam amplitude for Lorentzian gravity in three dimensions, allowing for both space- and time-like boundaries. The model is based on two main requirements: that it should be structurally similar to its well-known…