Related papers: More Brieskorn spheres bounding rational balls
We construct the first non-trivial examples of complete families of non-degenerate smooth space curves, and show that the base of such a family cannot be a rational curve. Both results rely on the study of the strong semistability of…
Let $V$ be a regular neighborhood of a negative chain of $2$-spheres (i.e. exceptional divisor of a cyclic quotient singularity), and let $B_{p,q}$ be a rational homology ball which is smoothly embedded in $V$. Assume that the embedding is…
Given a closed simply connected manifold $M$ of dimension $2n\ge6$, we compare the ring of characteristic classes of smooth oriented bundles with fibre $M$ to the analogous ring resulting from replacing $M$ by the connected sum…
We calculate a certain homological obstruction introduced by De Concini, Procesi and Salvetti in their study of the Schwartz genus of the fibration from the space of ordered configuration of points in the plane to the space of the unordered…
We construct examples of finite covers of punctured surfaces where the first rational homology is not spanned by lifts of simple closed curves. More generally, for any set $\mathcal{O} \subset F_n$ which is contained in the union of…
We develop obstructions to a knot K in the 3-sphere bounding a smooth punctured Klein bottle in the 4-ball. The simplest of these is based on the linking form of the 2-fold branched cover of the 3-sphere branched over K. Stronger…
$\hat{Z}$-invariants, which can reconstruct the analytic continuation of the SU(2) Chern-Simons partition functions via Borel resummation, were discovered by GPV and have been conjectured to be a new homological invariant of 3-manifolds…
We introduce the $k$-stellated spheres and compare and contrast them with $k$-stacked spheres. It is shown that for $d \geq 2k$, any $k$-stellated sphere of dimension $d$ bounds a unique and canonically defined $k$-stacked ball. In…
Greene and Owens explore cubiquitous lattices as an obstruction to rational homology 3-spheres bounding rational homology 4-balls. The purpose of this article is to better understand which sublattices of $\mathbb{Z}^n$ are cubiquitous with…
We study a class of two-generator two-relator groups, denoted $J_n(m,k)$, that arise in the study of relative asphericity as groups satisfying a transitional curvature condition. Particular instances of these groups occur in the literature…
In this manuscript, we introduce a family of parametrized non-homogeneous linear complex differential equations on $[1,\infty)$, depending on a complex parameter. We identify a "Rotation number hypothesis" on the non-homogeneous term, which…
We study the 10 noncommutative spheres obtained by liberating, twisting, and liberating+twisting the real and complex spheres $S^{N-1}_\mathbb R,S^{N-1}_\mathbb C$. At the axiomatic level, we show that, under very strong axioms, these 10…
In his 1856 Adams Prize essay, James Clark Maxwell demonstrated that Saturn's rings cannot be comprised of a uniform rigid body. This is a consequence of the two-body gravitational interaction between a ring and planet resulting in…
We prove that the inertia groups of all sufficiently-connected, high-dimensional $(2n)$-manifolds are trivial. This is a key step toward a general classification of manifolds in the metastable range. Specifically, for $m \gg 0$ and…
Inspired by the ideas and techniques used in the study of cluster algebras we construct a new class of algebras, called bistellar cluster algebras, from closed oriented triangulated even-dimensional manifolds by performing…
We prove the existence of Sasakian-Einstein metrics on infinitely many rational homology spheres in all odd dimensions greater than 3. In dimension 5 we obain somewhat sharper results. There are examples where the number of effective…
A conjecture due to Gompf asserts that no nontrivial Brieskorn homology sphere admits a pseudoconvex embedding in ${\mathbb C}^2$, with either orientation. A related question asks whether every compact contractible 4-manifold admits the…
We identify a family of numbers for which the Bernoulli convolution is singular. Within this family we find two countable collections of Salem numbers in the interval $(1,2)$, and another Salem number and an algebraic integer that is…
Boileau and Rudolph called a link $L$ in the $3$-sphere a $\bf C$-boundary if it can be realized as the intersection of an algebraic curve $A$ in $\bf C^2$ with the boundary of a smooth embedded $4$-ball $B$. They showed that some links are…
We introduce and study a new class of homotopy spheres called Farrell-Jones spheres. Using Farrell-Jones sphere we construct examples of closed negatively curved manifolds $M^{2n}$, where $n=7$ or $8$, which are homeomorphic but not…