Related papers: The trace embedding lemma and spinelessness
Markov proved that there exists an unrecognizable 4-manifold, that is, a 4-manifold for which the homeomorphism problem is undecidable. In this paper we consider the question how close we can get to S^4 with an unrecognizable manifold. One…
For a topological space $X$ we study continuous maps $f : X\to \mathbb R^m$ such that images of every pairwise distinct $k$ points are affinely (linearly) independent. Such maps are called affinely (linearly) $k$-regular embeddings. We…
Some generalizations and variations of the Fintushel-Stern rim surgery are known to produce smoothly knotted surfaces. We show that if the fundamental groups of their complements are cyclic, then these surfaces are topologically unknotted.…
We show that each of the topological 4-manifolds $CP^2#k\bar{CP^2}, for $k = 6, 7$ admits a smooth structure which has an Einstein metric of scalar curvature $s > 0$, a smooth structure which has an Einstein metric with $s < 0$ and…
Any oriented $4$-dimensional Einstein metric with semi-definite sectional curvature satisfies the pointwise inequality \[ \frac{|s|}{\sqrt{6}}\geq|W^+|+|W^-|, \] where $s$, $W^+$ and $W^-$ are respectively the scalar curvature, the…
We prove a structure theorem for the solutions of nonlinear thin two-membrane problems in dimension two. Using the theory of quasi-conformal maps, we show that the difference of the sheets is topologically equivalent to a solution of the…
We study the Seiberg-Witten invariant $\lambda_{\rm{SW}} (X)$ of smooth spin $4$-manifolds $X$ with integral homology of $S^1\times S^3$ defined by Mrowka, Ruberman, and Saveliev as a signed count of irreducible monopoles amended by an…
This paper considers the cohomology and bounded interpolation of nonstandard finite element complexes, e.g. Stokes, Hessian, Elasticity, divdiv. Compared to the standard finite element exterior calculus, the main challenge is the existence…
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…
This paper uses Brin and Thickstun's theory of end reductions of non-compact 3-manifolds to study groups of covering translations of irreducible contractible open 3-manifolds W which are not homeomorphic to R^3. We associate to W an object…
Model-theoretic aspects of exotic smoothness were studied long ago uncovering unexpected relations to noncommutative spaces and quantum theory. Some of these relations were worked out in detail in later work. An important point in the…
We show that every closed, simply connected, spin topological 4-manifold except $S^4$ and $S^2\times S^2$ admits a homologically trivial, pseudofree, locally linear action of $\mathbb{Z}_p$ for any sufficiently large prime number $p$ which…
An obstruction theory for representing homotopy classes of surfaces in 4-manifolds by immersions with pairwise disjoint images is developed, using the theory of non-repeating Whitney towers. The accompanying higher-order intersection…
We develop the theory of the diagrammatics of surface cross sections to prove that there are an infinite number of homology 3-spheres smoothly embeddable in a homology 4-sphere but not in a homotopy 4-sphere. Our primary obstruction comes…
The well known Haldane map from spin chains into the $O(3)$ non linear sigma model is generalized to the case of spin ladders. This map allows us to explain the different qualitative behaviour between even and odd ladders, exactly in the…
A {\it wrinkled embedding} $f:V^n\to W^m$ is a topological embedding which is a smooth embedding everywhere on $V$ except a set of $(n-1)$-dimensional spheres, where $f$ has cuspidal corners. In this paper we prove that any rotation of the…
Rochlin proved that a closed 4-dimensional connected smooth oriented manifold $X^4$ with vanishing second Stiefel-Whitney class has signature $\sigma(X)$ divisible by 16. This was generalized by Kervaire and Milnor to the statement that if…
We study immersed surfaces in smooth 4-manifolds via singular banded unlink diagrams. Such a diagram consists of a singular link with bands inside a Kirby diagram of the ambient 4-manifold, representing a level set of the surface with…
We compare N=2 string and N=4 topological string within the framework of the sigma model approach. Being classically equivalent on a flat background, the theories are shown to lead to different geometries when put in a curved space. In…
We introduce a method to detect exotic surfaces without explicitly using a smooth 4-manifold invariant or an invariant of a 4-manifold-surface pair in the construction. Our main tools are two versions of families (Seiberg-Witten)…