Related papers: On a homotopy $4$-sphere
We consider the question of extending a smooth homotopy coherent finite cyclic group action on the boundary of a smooth 4-manifold to its interior. As a result, we prove that Dehn twists along any Seifert homology sphere, except the…
Let $S$ be a complete flat surface, such as the Euclidean plane. We determine the homeomorphism class of the space of all curves on $S$ which start and end at given points in given directions and whose curvatures are constrained to lie in a…
The paper is devoted to the study of homotopy properties of stabilizers of smooth functions on oriented surfaces, i.e., groups of diffeomorphisms of surfaces preserving a given function. For some class of smooth functions which is a…
In this article, using combinatorial techniques of mapping class groups, we show that a Stein fillable integral homology $3$-sphere supported by an open book decomposition with page a $4$-holed sphere admits a unique Stein filling up to…
We point out that recent constructions of inequivalent smooth structures yield a manufacturing procedure of infinite sets of pairwise smoothly non-isotopic nullhomologous 2-tori and spheres inside a myriad of 4-manifolds. The corresponding…
With any (open or closed) cover of a space T we associate certain homotopy classes of maps T into n-spheres. These homotopy invariants can be considered as obstructions for extensions of covers of a subspace A to a space X. We using these…
We give a combinatorial description of general homotopy groups of $k$-dimensional spheres with $k\geq3$ as well as those of Moore spaces. For $n>k\geq 3,$ we construct a finitely generated group defined by explicit generators and relations,…
An earlier article with Francis Bonahon introduced new invariants for pseudo-Anosov diffeomorphisms of surface, based on the representation theory of the quantum Teichmuller space. We explicity compute these quantum hyperbolic invariants in…
We introduce and study a class of compact 4-manifolds with boundary that we call protocorks. Any exotic pair of simply connected closed 4-manifolds is related by a protocork twist, moreover, any cork is supported by a protocork. We prove a…
We list all analytic diffeomorphisms between an open subset of the 4-dimensional projective space and an open subset of the 4-dimensional sphere that take all line segments to arcs of round circles. These are the following: restrictions of…
We prove that, for a closed oriented smooth spin 4-manifold $X$ with non-zero signature, the Dehn twist about a $(+2)$- or $(-2)$-sphere in $X$ is not homotopic to any finite order diffeomorphism. In particular, we negatively answer the…
We prove the uniqueness, up to diffeomorphism, of symplectically aspherical fillings of the unit cotangent bundle of odd-dimensional spheres. As applications, we first show the non-existence of exact symplectic cobordisms between some…
Let $T= S^1\times D^2$ be the solid torus, $\mathcal{F}$ the Morse-Bott foliation on $T$ into $2$-tori parallel to the boundary and one singular circle $S^1\times 0$, which is the central circle of the torus $T$, and…
Given a closed, smooth 4-manifold $X$ and self-diffeomorphism $f$ that is topologically pseudo-isotopic to the identity, we study the question of whether $f$ is moreover smoothly pseudo-isotopic to the identity. If the fundamental group of…
The main result is that an s-cobordism (topological or smooth) of 4-manifolds has a product structure outside a ``core'' sub s-cobordism. These cores are arranged to have quite a bit of structure, for example they are smooth and abstractly…
Numerous structural findings of homology manifolds have been derived in various ways in relation to $g_2$-values. The homology $4$-manifolds with $g_2\leq 5$ are characterized combinatorially in this article. It is well-known that all…
In this paper, we study a construction of homotopy invariants of open or closed covers, where the homotopy class is defined relative to a pair $(V,r)$, with $V$ a finite set of points in $\mathbb{R}^d$ and $r$ a point in the interior of…
This article concludes the comprehensive study started in [Sz5], where the first non-trivial isospectral pairs of metrics are constructed on balls and spheres. These investigations incorporate 4 different cases since these balls and spheres…
We introduce a new diffeomorphism invariant of smooth compact oriented 4-manifolds $X$ with a framed oriented 1-link $L$ in the boundary, where $L$ may be the empty set, and call it {\it Khovanov-Lipshitz-Sarkar skein lasagna homotopy type}…
We prove that there exist infinitely many contractible compact smooth $4$-manifolds $C$ that admit absolutely exotic diffeomorphisms of infinite order in $\pi_0(\mathrm{Diff}(C))$. By ``absolutely", we mean that isotopies are not required…