Related papers: Higher order corks

The topology of symplectic 4-manifolds is related to that of singular plane curves via the concept of branched covers. Thus, various classification problems concerning symplectic 4-manifolds can be reformulated as questions about singular…

An important difference between high dimensional smooth manifolds and smooth 4-manifolds that in a 4-manifold it is not always possible to represent every middle dimensional homology class with a smoothly embedded sphere. This is true even…

We give several criteria on a closed, oriented 3-manifold that will imply that it is the boundary of a (simply connected) 4-manifold that admits infinitely many distinct smooth structures. We also show that any weakly fillable contact…

We prove for any positive integer $n$ there exist boundary-sum irreducible ${\mathbb Z}_n$-corks with Stein structure. Here `boundary-sum irreducible' means the manifold is indecomposable with respect to boundary-sum. We also verify that…

From a handlebody-theoretic perspective, the simplest compact, contractible 4-manifolds, other than the 4-ball, are Mazur manifolds. We produce the first pairs of Mazur manifolds that are homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic. Our…

Despite spectacular advances in defining invariants for simply connected smooth and symplectic 4-dimensional manifolds and the discovery of effective surgical techniques, we still have been unable to classify simply connected smooth…

We use Furuta's result, usually referred to as ``10/8-conjecture'', to show that for any compact 3-manifold $M$ the open manifold $M\times\r$ has infinitely many different smooth structures. Another consequence of Furuta's result is…

We note that infinitely many irreducible, closed, simply connected 4-manifolds, with prescribed signature and spin type, admit perfect Morse functions, i.e. they can be given handle decompositions without 1- and 3-handles. In particular,…

We show that for any finitely presented group $G$, there is a simply connected closed 4-manifold containing an infinite family of topologically isotopic but smoothly inequivalent 2-links whose 2-link group is $G$. We also show that, if $G$…

We discuss an obstruction to a knot being smoothly slice that comes from minimum-genus bounds on smoothly embedded surfaces in definite 4-manifolds. As an example, we provide an alternate proof of the fact that the (2,1)-cable of the figure…

We show that an infinite family of contractible 4-manifolds have the same boundary as a special type of plumbing. Consequently their Ozsvath--Szabo invariants can be calculated algorithmically. We run this algorithm for the first few…

For a compact smooth manifold $M$ (with boundary) we prove that the topological rank of the diffeomorphism group Diff$_0^k(M)$ is finite for all $k\geq 1$. This extends a result from [2] where the same claim is proved in the special case of…

Let M be a 4-manifold with residually finite fundamental group G having b_1(G) > 0. Assume that M carries a symplectic structure with trivial canonical class K = 0 in H^2(M). Using a theorem of Bauer and Li, together with some classical…

Work of numerous authors has shown that any smooth, orientable, closed 4-manifold may be described as a loop of Morse functions on a surface, a loop in the cut complex, a loop in the pants complex, or as a multisection. In this paper, we…

Given a closed oriented PL four-manifold $X$ and a closed surface $B$ embedded in $X$ with isolated cone singularities, we give a formula for the signature of an irregular dihedral cover of $X$ branched along $B$. For $X$ simply-connected,…

We prove:(1) the existence, for every integer n > 3, of a noncompact smooth n-dimensional topological manifold whose diffeomorphism group contains an isomorphic copy of every finitely presented group; (2) a finiteness theorem on finite…

We define the class of high dimensional graph manifolds. These are compact smooth manifolds supporting a decomposition into finitely many pieces, each of which is diffeomorphic to the product of a torus with a finite volume hyperbolic…

We classify the possible elementary amenable fundamental groups of compact aspherical 4-manifolds with boundary and conclude that they are either polycyclic or solvable Baumslag- Solitar. Since these groups are good and satisfy the…

Topological classification of the 4-manifolds bridges computation theory and physics. A proof of the undecidability of the homeomorphy problem for 4-manifolds is outlined here in a clarifying way. It is shown that an arbitrary Turing…

We study connected sum at infinity on smooth, open manifolds. This operation requires a choice of proper ray in each manifold summand. In favorable circumstances, the connected sum at infinity operation is independent of ray choices. For…