Related papers: The trace embedding lemma and spinelessness

We describe the flat surfaces with flat normal bundle and regular Gauss map immersed in R^4 using spinors and Lorentz numbers. We obtain a new proof of the local structure of these surfaces. We also study the flat tori in the sphere S^3 and…

We construct and study the skein lasagna module obtained by importing the Bar-Natan Khovanov homology package. For 4-manifolds satisfying a non-vanishing condition, we produce pairs of exotic surfaces (with boundary) by using the behavior…

We consider embedded ring-type surfaces (that is, compact, connected, orientable surfaces with two boundary components and Euler-Poincar\'{e} characteristic zero) in ${\bold R}^3$ of constant mean curvature which meet planes $\Pi_1$ and…

Symplectic 4-manifolds $(X,\omega)$ with $b_+{=}1$ are roughly classified by the canonical class $K$ and the symplectic form $\omega$ depending upon the sign of $K^2$ and $K\cdot \omega$. Examples are known for each category except for the…

We study exotic smoothings of open 4-manifolds using the minimal genus function and its analog for end homology. While traditional techniques in open 4-manifold smoothing theory give no control of minimal genera, we make progress by using…

We construct infinite rank summands isomorphic to $\mathbb{Z}^\infty$ in the higher homotopy and homology groups of the diffeomorphism groups of certain $4$-manifolds. These spherical families become trivial in the homotopy and homology…

Using the existence of certain symplectic submanifolds in symplectic 4-manifolds, we prove an estimate from above for the number of singular fibers with separating vanishing cycles in minimal Lefschetz fibrations over surfaces of positive…

We discuss the possible relevance of some recent mathematical results and techniques on four-manifolds to physics. We first suggest that the existence of uncountably many R^4's with non-equivalent smooth structures, a mathematical…

We combine Freedman's topology with Eliashberg's holomorphic theory to construct Stein neighborhood systems in complex surfaces, and use these to study various notions of convexity and concavity. Every tame, topologically embedded 2-complex…

Using lattice homology, we give an explicit combinatorial description of the Seiberg-Witten-Floer spectrum $\mathit{SWF}(Y)$ for $Y$ an almost-rational plumbed homology sphere. This class of manifolds includes all Seifert fibered rational…

We obtain topological obstructions to the existence of a complete Riemannian metric with uniformly positive scalar curvature on certain (non-compact) $4$-manifolds. In particular, such a metric on the interior of a compact contractible…

Given a $4$-manifold $\hat{M}$ and two homeomorphic surfaces $\Sigma_1, \Sigma_2$ smoothly embedded in $\hat{M}$ with genus more than 1, we remove the neighborhoods of the surfaces and obtain a new $4$-manifold $M$ from gluing two…

We re-examine the problem of gauging the Wess-Zumino term of a d-dimensional bosonic sigma-model. We phrase this problem in terms of the equivariant cohomology of the target space and this allows for the homological analysis of the…

Given a compact connected Lie group G endowed with root datum, and an element w in the corresponding Artin braid group for G, we describe a filtered G-equivariant stable homotopy type, up to a notion of quasi-equivalence. We call this…

We extend the skein lasagna theory of Morrison-Walker-Wedrich to 4-manifolds with corners and formulate gluing formulas for 4-manifolds with boundary and, more generally, with corners. As an application, we develop a categorical framework…

By extending a result of Kronheimer-Mrowka to the family setting, we prove a gluing formula for the family Seiberg-Witten invariant. This formula allows one to compute the invariant for a smooth family of 4-manifolds by cutting it open…

We continue the study of maximal families W of the Hilbert scheme, H(d,g)_{sc}, of smooth connected space curves whose general curve C lies on a smooth degree-s surface S containing a line. For s > 3, we extend the two ranges where W is a…

Two 4-manifolds are stably diffeomorphic if they become diffeomorphic after connected sum with S^2 x S^2's. This paper shows that two closed, orientable, homotopy equivalent, smooth 4-manifolds are stably diffeomorphic, provided a certain…

We construct noncomplex smooth 4-manifolds which admit genus-2 Lefschetz fibrations over S^2. The fibrations are necessarily hyperelliptic, and the resulting 4-manifolds are not even homotopy equivalent to complex surfaces. Furthermore,…

Given a spin rational homology sphere $Y$ equipped with a $\mathbb{Z}/m$-action preserving the spin structure, we use the Seiberg--Witten equations to define equivariant refinements of the invariant $\kappa(Y)$ from \cite{Man14}, which take…